MAN, 

AS KNOWN TO US 
THEOLOGICALLY AND GEOLOGICALLY. 



LONDON ! 
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
st. john's square. 



MAN, 



AS KNOWN TO US 



THEOLOGICALLY AND GEOLOGICALLY. 



BY THE 

REV. EDWARD N ARES, D.D. 

RECTOR OF BIDDENDEN, KENT; 
AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. 



PSALM VIII. 

4. What is MAN, that thou art mindful of him : or the son of man, that thou 
visitest him? 

5. Thou madest him lower than the angels: to crown him with glory and 
worship. 

6. Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thine hands : and thou 
hast put all things in subjection under his feet ; 

7. All sheep and oxen: yea, and the beasts of the field; 

8. The fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea : and whatsoever walketh 
through the paths of the sea. 



LONDON: 
PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, 

st. Paul's church yard, 
and waterloo place, pall mall. 



1834. 



MAN 

AS KNOWN TO US 
THEOLOGICALLY AND GEOLOGICALLY. 



If, in the whole compass of the globe, any book 
should ever be discovered older than the Bible, con- 
taining records of greater, or only equal credibility, 
but ascending far higher than the best computed era 
of the Mosaic account of the origin of the human race, 
then I shall be willing to grant, that the foundations 
of the present work may be shaken, and readers must 
be left to collect the history of sublunary events from 
other sources. 

It is solely upon the supposition, or perhaps I ought 
rather to say at once, the most absolute persuasion, 
that no such discovery will ever now be made, that 
these remarks are submitted to the consideration and 
judgment of those who may wish to have such ques- 
tions as the following resolved for them ; — namely, 
who and what they are ? under what circumstances 
they became inhabitants of this world, what character 
they are designed and expected to sustain in it, and 
whither they may be going, or what is to become of 
them, when their term is out ? 

All of the above questions have answers provided 
for them in the Bible ; but, to a certainty, no where 
else. 

B 



2 



HISTORY AN ESSENTIAL PART OF RELIGION. 



Fully to answer such inquiries, it is manifestly of 
no use to explore the Earth. The Earth cannot 
sufficiently tell her own story; if it could, geology, 
of which we are now in the habit of hearing so much, 
would in a great measure, cease to be a science, and 
the curious in such matters would be more in agree- 
ment than is yet found to be the case. 

The Earth indeed can tell us something about 
Man, and something of importance, as will be shown 
in due time. At present it is my intention to defer 
all consideration of terrestrial phenomena, as bearing 
upon the history of man, till after I shall have shown 
how indispensably necessary to such beings as our- 
selves a proper history of Man must be ; what an im- 
penetrable cloud of darkness hangs over us without 
the help of such a history ; and how certain it is, that 
such a history is in existence, let what will become of 
the Earth as an object of scientific research and 
inquiry. 

Instead of pressing science into the service of Re- 
velation, as some have been accused of doing, I am 
willing to leave science to take its course, if I may 
but be allowed to insist upon the very superior light 
of Revelation ; not however in any manner disdaining 
the help of science, where it can be fairly shown to 
answer my purposes. 

As a reason for engaging in such a subject at this 
time — a subject I fancied I had taken leave of long 
ago — I shall have to show in the course of my remarks, 
that if not here, yet certainly in other parts of the 
world, the examination of the Earth, has been known 
to interfere so far with Revelation, as to persuade 
both Jews and Christians, that History is no part of 
religion. I hope I shall be able, on the contrary, to 



GLARING ABSURDITY OF ATHEISM. 



3 



prove, that without the aid of history, there can be no 
true religion : and when I have said as much as I wish 
to say of the history of Man, it will be time enough 
to turn to the history of the Earth. 

I shall not stop then to inquire here into the exact 
physical character of this abode of man. It seems to 
me to be much more than a happy conjecture, that it 
is a globular body, of certain dimensions, having no 
solid or visible support, but keeping its destined place 
in the universe, by the force and influence of original 
impulses and principles, wholly inscrutable, except in 
their effects, and dependent on some first intelligent 
Cause, infinitely more necessary to its being, exist- 
ence, and arrangement, than the fabricator of an 
artificial globe, sphere or orrery, to the ingenious 
and scientific productions of his own hands. A com- 
parison I am the more induced to adopt, because it 
has been already so effectually made use of to expose 
the extreme absurdity of Atheism, as to stand in the 
place of a thousand metaphysical arguments. 

It is related of that eccentric, but very learned 
man, Athanasius Kircher, that being acquainted with 
one who denied the existence of a supreme Being, 
he took the following method to convince him of his 
error upon his own principles. Expecting him upon 
a visit, he procured a costly and ingeniously constructed 
globe of the starry heavens to be so placed in his 
room, as naturally to attract the notice of his visitor, 
who no sooner saw it than he began eagerly to in- 
quire whence it came, and to whom it belonged ? — 
" Not to me," said Kircher, " nor was it ever made 
by any body, but came into the place where you see 
it .quite by chance." " That " replied his sceptical 
friend, " is quite impossible ; you are jesting." " Why 

B 2 



4 



ATHEISM EASILY REFUTED. 



do you think so ?" said Kirclier ; 4 i how is it that 
you will not believe that this small body originated 
in mere chance, when you would contend, that those 
heavenly bodies above us, of which it is only a very 
faint and diminutive resemblance, came into existence 
without order or design ?" 

Very long before the time of Kircher, indeed, a 
similar appeal had been made to the sphere of Archi- 
medes ; not to confute or convince Atheists, but to 
correct some overforward Theists, who observing the 
orderly and regular manner in which the heavenly 
bodies kept their courses, were for enduing them 
with intelligence, and making gods of them. Lac- 
tantius (for he is the author I refer to) very wisely 
argued with them, that if Archimedes' sphere, in 
which these bodies and their movements, were so 
admirably imitated, was received as a proof of the 
great skill and contrivance of a known artificer, the 
heavenly bodies themselves could only deserve to be 
regarded as the workmanship of one as much tran- 
scending Archimedes in intelligence and power, as 
the stars in the firmament surpassed his artificial im- 
itation of them ; while the undeviating regularity of 
their motions, which excited so much wonder, as 
plainly showed that so far from being gods, they were 
not moved by any ivill or intelligence of their own, but 
were only operating in strict obedience to certain laws 
imposed on them by an extrinsic cause, equal to effects, 
infinitely surpassing the present comprehension of 
man. 

So simple is the refutation of Atheism upon the 
principles of common sense — so irresistible the in- 
ferences to be drawn from a mere inspection and con- 
sideration of the products of human art, especially 



PROCEEDS CHIEFLY FROM THE HEART. 5 

when applied to the purposes of science. In such cases, 
who was ever known to doubt for one moment of the 
existence of an intelligent artificer, as indispensably 
necessary to the production of the several objects ? 

It has been questioned, whether a truly systematic 
Atheist ever did, or ever will exist. There are, how- 
ever, so many reasons why men of loose principles, 
profligate and idle habits, or even careless lives, should 
wish rather to live without God in the world, than to 
fix upon themselves all the responsibilities of ac- 
countable beings, during their short sojournment 
upon the earth, that it need never excite much 
wonder in our minds, to hear occasionally the most 
palpable truths disavowed and denied, if they stand 
in the way of persons reputed to be accountable ; but 
to deny, and to disprove truths, evident to others, are 
totally different things: we may be very certain, 
therefore, that if any really systematic Atheist should 
at any time exist, his infirmity would not be found to 
be very contagious. There never could be many in 
the world capable of being imposed upon by Kircher's 
insidious negations, that his artificial sphere had been 
made by nobody, and had come into the corner of his 
chamber quite by chance ; and till this is the case, we 
may be assured that Atheism, in the strictest sense of 
the expression, can have no chance of becoming 
general, though there may be always some, and pro- 
bably far too many of that description of persons, 
loose in the world, disposed, like " the fool" in the 
Psalms, to " say in their hearts" without the trouble 
of consulting their heads, " that there is no god !" 
Admirably has the learned Chillingworth expressed 
himself upon this very text. " The words," says he, 
" do not run thus, the fool being convinced by the 

B 3 



6 st. paul's address to the corinthians. 

evidence of reason and demonstration hath concluded 
there is no God: no, this is no heathenish philoso- 
phical fool ; he is quite of another temper : this is a 
worldly, proud, malicious, projecting, wise fool ; a fool 
who knows it is for his advantage to put God out of 
his thoughts ; and, therefore, doth forcibly captivate, 
and wilfully hoodwink his understanding, and thinks 
he hath obtained a great victory, if he can contrive 
any course to bring himself to that pass, that no cold 
melancholy thoughts of God or hell, may interrupt 
and restrain him from freely wallowing in the lusts 
and uncleanness of his heart, without remorse ; it is 
for his heart's sake, the love that he bears to the lust 
thereof, that makes him an Atheist." 

" I speak," said St. Paul to the Greeks at Corinth, 
"as unto wise men, judge ye what I say." This was 
a delicate way of securing their attention by a com- 
pliment; for the Greeks at Corinth "were all wise in 
their own conceit," and much " puffed up," to use the 
apostle's own expression, on that account. He does 
not therefore go out of his way, to disparage their 
understandings without necessity, but appeals to their 
own judgment as to the case in hand, as though they 
were really already sufficiently wise for his purposes ; 
but after all, we shall find him relying more on the 
decision of their hearts than of their heads, as in the 
case of his own countrymen, the Hebrews, whom he 
especially cautions against " an evil heart of unbe- 
lief ;" that is, an infidelity proceeding rather from a 
vicious or faulty disposition of mind and affections, 
than from the head or understanding. 

Those who may be disposed to think that the 
credulity of believers is an unreasonable bias, would 
do well to consider that incredulity is quite as likely 



ON ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE. 



7 



to proceed from a bias; for certainly, every vicious 
inclination which a man is resolved to pursue, is a 
strong bias upon his mind towards infidelity, or at 
least towards such false or corrupt notions of God 
and religion, as insensibly lead men to it. 

Infidelity besides may often arise from pride and 
self-conceit, which disposes men of parts and learning 
to an affectation of singularity, and a desire of seeming 
wiser than other people, by maintaining paradoxes, 
and contradicting all opinions that are vulgarly re- 
ceived, for that very reason, because they are so 1 . 
At all events, what men do not like, they are very 
unwilling to understand, and still more backward to 
believe. 

If the above several causes do not lead to an 
absolute incorrigible pitch of infidelity, they may yet 
reduce a man to that melancholy state of unconcern 
about the very being of God, and a future state, which 
cannot be better described than as it has been rightly 
enough called, a most dangerous, if not altogether an 
atheistical indifference. 

Now as this is a state, into which many may fall 
inadvertently, not through any want of education, un- 
derstanding, or even learning, (to speak generally), 
but merely for want of having certain particular 
truths, so brought home to their minds, as to be secure 
against any subsequent disturbance, (of which there is 
always more or less danger,) I propose to show, that 
even the best educated persons, those endowed with 
the highest gifts of understanding, nay, even the most 

1 " Illis quieta movere magna merces videbatur." — Sallust. 
" They thought the very disturbance of things established, sufficient 
hire to set them to work." — Hooker. 

B 4 



8 YOUNG ON THE CONTRARIETIES IN MAN. 

learned, to a certain extent, may yet be labouring 
under a most fatal ignorance, if any untoward circum- 
stances should have led them to neglect, much more to 
despise, the history of the earth and of man, con- 
tained in the Bible. 

For though, the great advancement of knowledge 
and science, must in one point of view have appeared 
to lessen our importance, by reducing our history to 
that of only one small planet, of one circumscribed 
system, out of myriads and myriads perhaps of other 
systems and other planets, yet it should be considered, 
that after all, the Bible history is undeniably the only 
history that connects us with the universe at large, 
and what is more, with the ineffably great, omniscient, 
and omnipotent Author of the Universe itself: it is 
the only history that can help us to clear up certain 
difficulties attending our situation here, and which 
without some such help, must remain inexplicable, 
most mortifying, and melancholy mysteries; Man 
himself perhaps the greatest, as has been well, and 
not extravagantly shown both in poetry and prose. 

" How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 
How complicate, how wonderful, is man ! 
How passing wonder he who made him such ! 
Who center'd in our make such strange extremes, 
From difFrent natures marvellously mix'd, 
Connection exquisite of distant worlds ! 
Distinguished link in being's endless chain ! 
Midway from nothing to the Deity ! 
A beam ethereal, sully'd and absorpt ; 
Though sully'd and dishonour'd, still divine; 
Dim miniature of greatness absolute ! 
An heir of glory ! a frail child of dust ! 
Helpless immortal ! insect infinite ! 
A worm ! — a god ! — I tremble at myself, 
And in myself am lost — at home a stranger, 



PASCAL ON THE SAME. 



9 



Thought wanders up and down, surpris'd, aghast, 
And wond'ring at her own — how reason reels! 
O what a miracle to man, is man ! 
Triumphantly distress'd — what joy ! what dread ! 
Alternately transported and alarm'd ! 
What can preserve my life ? or what destroy ? 
An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave ; 
Legions of angels can't confine me there." 

Is this mere rant, or is it sober truth ? To prove 
it to be the latter, I shall produce a specimen of the 
same thoughts, from the pen of a writer, whose gravity 
and sobriety never can be disputed, and whose supe- 
rior powers of reasoning, have long been acknowl- 
edged throughout the whole civilised world. I speak 
of the celebrated Blaise Pascal, 1 from whose excel- 
lent but loosely arranged " Thoughts," I propose to 
make some extracts, in order to show the folly of that 
"atheistical indifference," of which I have before 
spoken. 

Thus then does this very eminent and good Chris- 
tian express his own opinion of the wonderful con- 
trarieties to be found in man. 

" What a chimera then is man ! what a surprising 
novelty ! what a confused chaos ! what a subject of 
contradiction ! a professed judge of all things, and 
yet a feeble worm of the earth ! the great depository 
and guardian of truth, and yet a mere huddle of 
uncertainty; the glory and the scandal of the uni- 
verse ! If he is too aspiring and lofty, we can lower 
and humble him : if too mean and little, we can raise 
and swell him; to conclude, we can bait him with 
repugnancies and contradictions, till at length he ap- 

1 Dans aucun temps il n'a existe de plus grand genie. Bossu, 
Dictionn. Historique, Art. Pascal. 

B 5 



10 



MAROUIS D'ARGENS. 



prehends himself to be a monster even beyond ap- 
prehension V 

But all this is to be understood, as descriptive of 
man, toithout the light of revelation, which it is neces- 
sary to mention, because I have seen a passage of the 
same writer very similar to this, referred to, in proof 
of man's positive and irremediable weakness and misery, 
very different from the meaning of the author 2 . 

The passage to which I allude, is so much to my 
purpose, that I shall copy it, exactly as it is cited by 
the Marquis oVArgens, it being a passage well rendered 
in the old English version : " When I consider the 
blindness and misery of man, and those amazing con- 
trarieties which discover themselves in his nature ; 
when I observe the whole creation to be silent, and 
man to be without comfort, abandoned to himself, and 
as it were strayed into this corner of the universe, 
neither apprehending by whose means he came hither, 
nor what is the end of his coming, nor what will befall 
him at his departure hence, I am struck with the 
same horror as a person who has been carried in his 
sleep into a desolate and frightful island, and who 
awakes without knowing where he is, or by what way 
he may get out and escape, and upon this view I am 
at a loss to conceive how so miserable an estate can 

1 I take this from an English edition of the " Pensees," published 
in 1704, but as the French is a language seldom admitting of a trans- 
lation at all adequate to the original, I subjoin what follows : " Quelle 
chimere est-ce done que l'homme ? quelle nouveaute, quel chaos ! quel 
sujet de contradiction ! juge de toutes choses, imbecile ver de terre, 
depositaire du vray, amas d'incertitude; gloire et rebut de l'univers : 
s'il se vante, je l'abaisse; s'il s'abaisse, je le vante, et le contredis, 
toujours jusq' k ce qu'il comprenne qu'il est un monstre incomprehen- 
sible." — Sect. xxi. p. 114. 

2 Lettres Cabalistiques — par le Marquis d'Argens. — Lett, lxxxii. 



HIS PARTIAL REFERENCE TO PASCAL. 11 

produce anything but despair." Such a passage, 
cited in the above detached manner, in a work, where, 
as it has been well observed, " La religion est ■pen 
respectee V but in which there is certainly much dis- 
play of learning, and curious research, not to say of 
very sly and insidious wit, must have been intended 
to make an impression far different from what was 
meant by the admirable author, whose real design was 
expressly to show, that blind, and miserable, and in- 
comprehensible as man is by nature, he has not been 
left without comfort, he has not been wholly aban- 
doned to himself ; he has not been left unnoticed in a 
remote corner of the universe, without the means of 
apprehending how he came hither, or what is the end 
of his coming, or what will befall him at his departure 
hence. The passage in itself is in fact admirable, as 
a stimulant to man to look out for that help and infor- 
mation which is to be had, if instead of sinking into 
despair, he be but wise enough to seek for it, where it 
may be found. Let him dream as much as he will, 
that he has been carried in his sleep into a desolate 
and frightful island ; let him only allow himself to be 
awakened by such a Christian as Pascal, and he will 
soon know not only where he is, but by what way he 
may get out and escape. 

But Pascal shall speak for himself ; I shall continue 
the passage which his sly countryman has curtailed for 
other purposes. 

" I behold other persons near me of the same 
nature and constitution ; I ask if they are any better 
informed than myself, and they assure me they are 
not ; immediately after which I take notice that these 

1 Dictionnaire Historique, Art. Argens. 
B 6 



L-2 



NATURE LEAVES MAN IN DOUBT. 



unfortunate wanderers having looked about them, and 
espied certain objects of pleasure, are contented to 
seek no farther, but swallow the bait, embrace the 
charm, and fasten themselves down to the enjoyment. 
For my own part, I can obtain no satisfaction or re- 
pose in the society of persons no better than myself, 
labouring under the same weakness and the same dis- 
tress — I find they will be able to give me no assistance 
at my death: I shall be obliged to die alone; and, 
therefore, I ought to proceed in this respect, as if I 
lived alone. Now, in a condition of solitude, I would 
entertain no projects of building : I would perplex 
myself with none of the tumultuary affairs of life : I 
would court the esteem of no person ; but would de- 
vote myself and my pains to the discovery of truth. 

" Hence, reflecting how probable it seems that 
there may be something else besides that which now 
presents itself to my eye, I begin to examine, whether 
that Supreme and Divine Being, which is so much 
talked of by all the world, has been pleased to leave 
any marks or footsteps of himself. I look round on 
all sides, and see nothing throughout but universal 
obscurity. Nature offers no consideration but what is 
the subject of doubt and disquiet. Could I nowhere 
discern the least token of divinity, I would resolve not 
to believe at all ; could I in every thing trace the 
image of a Creator, I would rest myself upon a sure 
and settled belief ; but, while I see too much to deny, 
and too little to give me any certain confidence, my 
condition renders me an object of pity ; and I have 
a thousand times wished that if nature have indeed a 
Divine Author and Supporter, she would present us with 
the lively draught and uncontested character of his 
being ; but, that if the marks she does bear about her 



FALSE RELIGIONS. 



13 



are fallacious, she would entirely conceal him from 
our view ; that she would either say all, or say no- 
thing, so as to determine my judgment one way or 
the other. Whereas, under my present suspense, 
being ignorant as well of what I am, as of that which 
is expected of me, I remain an equal stranger to my 
condition and my duty. In the meantime my heart 
is absolutely bent on the search of real and solid good, 
such as, when foimd, may complete my hopes and re- 
gulate my conduct. I should think no price too dear 
for this acquisition ! 

" I discover a multitude of religions in all countries 
and times; but they are such as neither please me 
with their morals, nor move me with their proofs. 
Thus I would at once reject the religion of Mahomet, 
of China, of the Egyptians, and of the ancient 
Romans. 

" But while I am making my reflections on this 
strange and unaccountable variety of manners and be- 
lief in different countries and periods, I find in one 
little corner of the world a peculiar people separated 
from all the nations under heaven, whose registers ex- 
ceed, by many ages, the most ancient stories now on 
record. I discover a great and numerous race, who 
worship one god, and are governed by a law which 
they affirm themselves to have received from his hand. 
The sum of what they maintain is this : that they are 
the only persons whom God has honoured with the 
communication of his mysteries ; that all other men 
having corrupted themselves, and merited the divine 
displeasure, are abandoned to their own sense and ima- 
gination ; whence arise the endless wanderings and 
continual altercations amongst them, whether in reli- 
gion or civil discipline, while their nation alone has 



14 



ON THE JEWS. 



preserved an immovable establishment. But that God 
will not for ever leave the rest of the world under so 
miserable darkness; that a common Saviour shall at 
length arrive ; that the sole end of their polity is to 
prefigure and proclaim his arrival; that they were 
formed and constituted with express design to be the 
heralds of his great appearance, and to give warning 
to all nations that they should unite in the blessed ex- 
pectation of a Redeemer ! 

" My adventure amongst this people, as it gives 
me the greatest surprise, so it seems to me to deserve 
the highest regard and attention, on account of the 
many wonderful and singular curiosities discoverable 
in their frame. 

" They are the most ancient people that fall under 
our knowledge and discovery ; a circumstance, which 
in my judgment, ought to procure them a very parti- 
cular veneration, especially in regard to our present 
inquiry ; because, if God has at any time vouchsafed 
to reveal himself to mankind, these are the persons 
from whose hands we are to receive the tradition ! 

" Nor are they only considerable in point of anti- 
quity, but no less singular in their duration, from their 
original to this day ; for while the several people of 
Greece, of Italy, of Sparta, of Athens, and of Home, 
together with others that sprung up long after them, 
have been extinct many ages, these have always sub- 
sisted — and stretching themselves from the earliest to 
the latest memory, have caused the annals of their 
own nation to be co-extended with the history of the 
world. 

" The same people are still no less to be admired 
for their great sincerity. They preserve with the 
utmost faithfulness and zeal the very book in which 



THE CREDIBILITY OF THEIR RECORDS. 15 

Moses has left it recorded, that they were ever stub- 
born and ungrateful towards God, and that he foresaw 
they would be more perverse after his death ; that he 
therefore calls heaven and earth to witness against 
them, as to the sufficiency of the warning which he 
had given them ; that finally, God being incensed by 
their transgressions, should scatter them through all 
lands." 

Much more does this great man say of the Jews, as 
will be seen elsewhere ; at present I shall select a pas- 
sage from another portion of his book, to the follow- 
ing effect : — £< Man," says he, " is visibly made for 
thinking; this is all the merit which he boasts, and 
all the glory to which he aspires. To think as we 
ought is the sum of human duty ; and the true art of 
thinking is to begin with ourselves, our Author, and 
our end." 

Of ourselves, it must be admitted, we can form no 
adequate judgment or opinion, but from a proper his- 
tory of the species. Of our Author, we can know no- 
thing certain, but from what he may have been 
pleased to reveal; nor of our end, but through him 
on whom the end as much as the beginning depends. 

Now, the history to which Pascal alludes in the pas- 
sages above, expressly includes all these things. The 
history of man, of his Maker, and of his future pros- 
pects. And the great point to be ascertained is — 
Can it be true? or, to put the same question in 
another and perhaps a more determinate form, I shall 
venture to suggest the following very simple, though 
important alteration, namely — Can it be false ? 

The first answer I shall return to this question, will 
be to copy some remarks of my own, printed and pub- 
lished long ago, but for a work of such cost and mag- 



18 



HISTORY OF THE BIBLE ITSELF. 



nitude, as to be little likely to pass into many hands. 
It is part of my preface to a new edition of Macklin's 
Bible, published in the year 1824, and dedicated by 
permission to his late Majesty. One thing I shall 
wish to premise, namely, that there may be expres- 
sions in it, apparently not very suitable to the conclu- 
sions of geologists; my explanation of such seeming 
discordancies shall be found elsewhere. Geology is 
certainly become a very fashionable study, nor do I 
desire to check its course ; I merely wish to interpose 
a few cautions, for the behoof and security of those 
who have not lived yet so long as myself. " True 
fortitude of understanding," says Paley, " consists in 
not suffering what we know, to be disturbed by what 
we do not know." Having made these few preli- 
minary observations, I shall proceed to the extract I 
wish to introduce. 

" It would be well if every reader, before he enters 
upon the perusal, or rather study, of the bible, be his 
principles what they may, would endeavour to form in 
his mind as comprehensive and correct ideas as possible 
of its history and character, independently of the par- 
ticular nature and purport of its contents. For since 
it is impossible to undo what has undoubtedly taken 
place, however it may be slighted by some, or even 
disbelieved by others, its history and character can- 
not now be changed. It must have been extant and 
known to the world for some certain period of time. 
The testimony borne by those who have gone before 
us to its divine origin and authenticity, cannot be 
annihilated : hundreds of thousands in various parts of 
the earth, are known to have well weighed its con- 
tents, studied and meditated upon it in all its parts, 
examined into the evidences of its age and genuine- 



THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 



17 



ness, complied with its laws, obeyed its precepts, and 
died in the faith of all it announces, of all its promises, 
and all its threats. 

"Even the atheist then, who would pretend to deny 
the very being of God, cannot possibly obliterate the 
indelible traces to be discovered in the Bible, of his 
existence, his power, his wisdom, and his providence. 
The deist, who denies not his existence and provi- 
dence, but disputes the fact of his interposition in 
the way of revelation or manifestation, cannot annihi- 
late those records in which such revelations and mani- 
festations are related and preserved; he cannot do 
away those evidences of miraculous interposition, to 
be deduced from the fulfilment of prophecy, in which 
both the prediction and event conspire to prove, that 
nothing less than prescience and design, supported by 
a power absolutely irresistible, could possibly have 
brought them to concur. 

"The Jew, who receives and acknowledges one 
portion only of the sacred volume, and rejects the 
other, cannot hinder the effects of such proofs and 
evidences of their connection as the new Testament 
in particular supplies; he cannot deny to any the 
liberty of making the comparison and reference which 
the New Testament claims and challenges, or of apply - 
ing the one part of the Bible to the illustration of the 
other. Objections of this nature then can never be 
said to affect the character of this wonderful book. 
Then only will its character be changed, when it is 
universally acknowledged to be incapable of affording 
conviction of its own supernatural origin; a circum- 
stance which we shall endeavour to show, is every day 
becoming less and less likely to occur. 

" The Old and New Testament continue to be the 



18 



JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN REVELATIONS. 



'Two Witnesses,' whose testimony we are bound to 
examine and meditate upon, if we would act like per- 
sons who have but so much common sense as to dis- 
cern, that we are by nature dependent beings, who 
brought nothing into this world, and, it is most certain, 
can carry nothing out ; but whose existence may un- 
doubtedly be continued or renewed in another state 
as surely and as easily as it has had its commence- 
ment here. Had not such revelations been ever 
heard of as the Jewish and Christian religions, the 
same sense of our dependence, should in reason incline 
us, to examine any records or traditions of similar 
-pretensions. There is no form or institute of religion, 
in civilized or barbarous countries, that claims to be 
founded on divine revelation, which would not merit 
our attention and consideration, if we knew no other, 
merely on the ground of such claims. Man, in his 
natural state of darkness and dependence, is bound 
to notice and inquire into any pretensions of this de- 
scription ; for the hopes of the wild African may be 
said to be better than no hopes at all. 

" It is however, most certain, that in the present 
state of things, the Jewish and Christian revelations 
have a claim to be examined prior to all others what- 
soever, inasmuch as they not only profess to be derived 
from heaven, but to be singular and peculiar, to the 
positive and avowed exclusion of all other assumptions 
of the same kind. If the proofs and pretensions of 
the Jewish and Christian revelations be such as are 
not to be resisted or controverted, we need search no 
further 1 . Through these we may be perfectly as- 

1 " Christianity is the only religion that ever pretended that there 
should come a time when it should be the religion of the world in 
general." President Edwards. 

12 



THE TWO DIVISIONS OF THE BIBLE. 19 



sured, that we shall not only be put in possession of 
truth, but of the sole truth of matters; the only object 
concerning which we need be solicitous will be at- 
tained. The whole duty of man, as well as the will 
and nature of God, as far as it is discoverable to beings 
of such finite faculties, will be here disclosed and made 
known, and here alone. Our own nature, origin, con- 
dition, and destiny, as well as the being and attributes 
of God; the whole compass of our duties, prospects, 
hopes, and expectations, and of God's gracious pur- 
poses towards us : in short, the things of heaven, and 
things of earth, will, in these two revelations, be ren- 
dered intelligible, just as far as our limited faculties 
will admit, or our present state and circumstances re- 
quire. 

66 It is of great consequence also to consider, that of 
the two parts of which the Bible may be said to con- 
sist, one is undoubtedly less ancient than the other. 
The less ancient, however, refers us continually to the 
former, as that with which it is immediately connected : 
on which it is as it were founded and built. Jesus, 
the subject of all the books in the New Testament, 
declared to his disciples, that Moses and the Jewish 
prophets wrote of him, and bade them therefore search 
those Scriptures, (the only ones then extant) to see 
if he spake true. If this connection then cannot be 
traced, much of the authority of the New Testament 
will of course fail ; but since it has been concluded 
to be completely and entirely confirmed, by those 
who have duly considered the matter, and Christianity 
has, in consequence of this, prevailed, since its first 
annunciation, over a very large portion of the globe, 
and particularly in the parts of it most civilized and 
enlightened, it is very reasonable now, in taking that 



*20 OF THE FIRST AND SECOND ADAM. 

comprehensive view of revelation which concerns us, 
as rational and responsible beings, to begin with 
Christianity. That is, we may very properly com- 
mence the study of the sacred volume, upon Christ- 
ian principles, in order the better to ascertain in our 
perusal of it, whether the two parts do not in every 
particular tend to illustrate and confirm each other. 

" The Scriptures of the New Testament speak of a 
first and second Adam. The one sent into the world 
to rectify and repair, what would else, through the fall 
and transgression of the other, have infallibly operated 
to the total loss and ruin of mankind : but the second 
Adam is very much nearer to our own times than the 
first. We may be expected, therefore, to have greater 
opportunities of ascertaining the facts related of the 
second Adam than of the first : especially, as the times 
in which the second appeared, were much more favour- 
able to the due authentication of such facts, as far as 
human testimony can reach, than we can conceive to 
have been the case, at the period in which the first 
Adam had his abode upon earth. It is upon such 
grounds as these then, that we conceive it to be 
reasonable to make Christianity the ground-work of 
our researches ; because, if we believe the New Tes- 
tament to the extent the authors of its several parts 
require, we must proceed to the study of the Old 
Testament as of a book undoubtedly inspired and 
dictated by God ; for as such the writers of the New 
Testament regard it, and refer to it. They evidently 
speak of the first Adam as the head and representative 
of the whole human race ; and this, expressly as he is 
described to be in the writings of Moses. The writers 
of the New r Testament, therefore, who all lived and 
wrote less than nineteen centuries ago, undoubtedly 



LOW ERA OF THE CREATION OE MAN. 21 

gave credit to the account of Moses, as contained in 
the Book of Genesis, and which conveys to us the 
history of the creation of the earth and of man ; that 
event reaching back to an extent of nearly six thou- 
sand years from the present time at the lowest compu- 
tation, and to a period of four thousand years at the 
least, preceding the existence of the writers them- 
selves. 

" Seventeen or eighteen hundred years ago, there- 
fore, we may be sure that certain writers, many of 
whom laid down their lives in testimony of the facts 
they related, and the doctrines they promulgated, fully 
and entirely believed the Mosaic account of things to 
be true ; that Adam was the first of the human race, 
as Moses has described. Whatever records or monu- 
ments of remoter ages may be supposed to have pe- 
rished in the course of time, of this we must be cer- 
tain, that seventeen or eighteen hundred years ago, 
many more of such records must have been extant 
than is the case at present, and that it must have 
been proportionably the more difficult to impose upon 
mankind any false era for the commencement of things, 
but especially so low a one as that assigned by the 
sacred writers." 

It is the low era fixed upon for the commencement 
of all . human concerns on which I shall have princi- 
pally to insist; and I consider it to be of more im- 
portance at the present time than ever it was before, 
because the history of our race is so interwoven with 
what is commonly called the Mosaic creation, con- 
tained in the first two chapters of Genesis, as well as 
with the catastrophe of the Deluge (chapters vii. and 
viii.), that any conclusions drawn with regard to ter- 
restrial phenomena, apparently contrary to, or incon- 



22 GEOLOGICAL COMPUTATIONS. 

sistent with, those records which have been so long 
accounted sacred, cannot fail to startle and alarm the 
minds of zealous and sincere believers, as bearing 
hard upon the very foundations of Christianity. For 
as in Christ those only are to be made alive, who died 
in Adam, it is natural to ask, what will become of this 
sublime doctrine, if the Mosaic account of Adam be 
not strictly true ? 

Jt cannot be doubted but that in the first two chap- 
ters of the Book of Genesis, the creation of the earth 
and of man appear to be represented as so nearly coin- 
cident, that any discoveries indicative of a very great 
disparity in this respect ; any researches into the in- 
terior of the globe, that may seem to lead to a con- 
viction, that the one is very much older than the other, 
must seem to shake the general credibility of the 
whole ; and yet, it is now become quite notorious 
that certain geologists of great name and reputation, 
and not hastily to be numbered among unbelievers, 
think they have discovered in the body of the earth, 
undeniable proofs, not of any trifling difference or 
disparity, but of a succession of physical operations 
extending backwards (to use their own expression) 
through " countless ages,'' and still proceeding in such 
a series of decay and renovation, as to be in the way 
of producing continents after continents, and seas after 
seas, without any assignable check or termination — 
surely this is enough to excite a strong desire in the 
breasts of all unpliilosophical believers, to be informed, 
how far this may reasonably be judged to affect the 
general credibility of the author of the Pentateuch ? 
For my own part, I very much hope it may excite 
such a desire, as it seems to afford us an excellent 
opportunity of bringing the veracity and credibility of 



NECESSITY OF REFERRING TO ANCIENT WRITERS. 23 

Moses, to another, and, perhaps, a much surer test : I 
mean the test, not of physics, but of uncontradicted 
history. — Physics was the test, that arch infidel Vol- 
taire would have adopted to the exclusion of all others ; 
and there is no doubt but that he thought Christianity 
could no more stand his test than Mahometanism, to 
which he refers. In another part of my work (if it 
please God that I should live to finish it), I shall 
have further occasion for showing, how careful we 
ought to be, not to allow ourselves to be induced to 
abandon History, as an essential part of Religion. 

I shall willingly then for the present pass over 
what is said about the earth in the beginning of Ge- 
nesis, and keep to the history of man ; endeavouring 
to establish the truth of all that is written about the 
first Adam, by a reference to what we know concern- 
ing the second Adam. This will be to bring things 
nearer to our own time, and we may discuss the point 
with geologists afterwards. 

I am sorry I cannot pursue my argument without 
some appearance of pedantry, in being obliged to 
refer to authors comparatively very ancient, whose 
writings never can have been very generally read, 
and are now every day less likely to be read at all, 
owing to the multiplicity of more attractive works 
daily issuing from the press, in all parts of Europe, 
and in the current languages of the day; but, as a 
very learned living prelate has observed, " The pre- 
sent age does not so much require to be set free from 
error, as to be reminded of the truth V And the 
truth is to be sought for in things past, and in ancient 
writings, as reasonably, and perhaps very much more 



1 Records of Creation. 



24 ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHTANS. 1 COR. XV. 



so, than in modern books or in objects immediately 
before our eyes. I shall endeavour, however, to bring 
forward the evidences I have to produce, with as little 
parade and formality as possible. 

In regard to the Scriptures, one chapter only in 
the Bible, is likely to answer all my purposes, a 
chapter especially noticed by the compilers of our ad- 
mirable Liturgy, in being made a part of the solemn 
service appointed for the burial of the dead. I speak 
of the fifteenth chapter of St. Paul's first Epistle 
to the Corinthians, a portion of Scripture eminently 
calculated to show, how closely all the higher doc- 
trines of Christianity, all " the mysteries of the 
kingdom of heaven," (Matt. xiii. 11 ; Luke viii. 10) 
are interwoven and connected with the only au- 
thentic history of man. For there it is we find that 
very remarkable passage, already in some degree 
alluded to, " For since by man came death, by man 
came also the resurrection of the dead ; for as in 
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
alive." 

Let us first consider what is intimated in the leading 
member of this very striking passage. 

It is exceedingly plain, that St. Paul, in these 
words, had some special reason for showing that as 
hj one man (or " one man's disobedience," as he soon 
after wrote to the Romans, chap. v. 19), " sin entered 
into the world, and death by sin," the " resurrection 
of the dead," was accomplished and made manifest 
by Jesus Christ, in the very same nature; but had 
not our Saviour partaken of the Divine nature also, 
there could not possibly have been any necessity for 
such a remark ; that is, I mean, to speak of his man- 
hood or humanity in terms so pointed and emphatical. 



THE MANHOOD OF J. C. SPOKEN OF EMPHATICALLY. 25 

If it could have been expiated, if it had been at all 
reasonable to suppose, that our Saviour being man, 
in no other sense or respect, than he who " brought 
death into the world," could have so overcome death, 
as to procure for all men a resurrection from the 
grave, it would have been sufficient to have stated the 
case simply, and not have sought so carefully to press 
upon his converts, the additional circumstance, that he 
who wrought this great redemption for us, was a man, 
«r£i&7, " since," or because, he who brought death into 
the world was a man. The proper, natural inference, 
surely, to be drawn from the mode in which this 
matter is propounded in the words referred to is, that 
there was some very particular reason why he, who 
was to overcome death, and so open to us the gates of 
everlasting life, should do it in the same nature, which 
had previously been overcome by death, and sin, the 
cause of death. 

This fallen nature he was to redeem and restore — it 
had incurred the penalty of death and that penalty 
once paid by a mere child of mortality, must neces- 
sarily have extinguished all hope of an hereafter, 
with which the penalty itself, in its original rigour, 
was altogether incompatible. 

There must, then, have been something in the 
manhood of Jesus Christ, peculiar to itself ; and what 
could this be, but that it was, as the Scriptures plainly 
intimate, an assumed manhood ; assumed, purposely to 
accomplish the great end of man's redemption. 

I have said, that the Scriptures plainly intimate, 
that it was an assumed manhood ; and surely a stronger 
proof could not be produced, than the following pas- 
sage in the Epistle to the Hebrews. " Forasmuch 
then" (f7T£t ovv, which is exactly equivalent to eireiS*} 

c 



26 HIS MANHOOD EVIDENTLY ASSUMED. 

in the passage before), " Forasmuch then as," or 
because, " the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, 
that through death, he might destroy him that had 
the power of death, that is, the devil,"— "for verily, 
he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took 
on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things 
it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that 
he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, in 
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for 
the sins of the people." 

Surely in the above passage alone, (numberless 
others might be cited) we have the reason why the 
manhood of our Saviour is often spoken of emphati- 
cally. Not as those who call themselves Unitarians, 
ivith an undeserved insinuation against our own belief, 
would pretend : namely, to prevent our fancying that 
he was, or could be, more than man ; not to prevent 
our fancying, like the Docetce of old, that his human 
body was a mere phantasm ; but expressly to show, 
that if he were man, as undoubtedly he was, it was 
only out of mercy and condescension that he became 
such, in order manifestly and visibly to triumph over 
both sin and death, in that very nature, which, but for 
his interposition, had irrevocably sunk under their 
power. 

We must not, therefore, suppose that when our 
Lord is spoken of as man, or the Son of man, even 
though it should be emphatically, that it derogates 
any thing from his divinity. The emphasis lies all 
the other way ; it being necessary occasionally to lay 
some stress upon it, as an assumed manhood, lest we 
should doubt, as well we might, that if he were mere 
man, he could not have accomplished for us, what 



NO MERE MAN COULD DO WHAT J. C. DID. 27 

Christianity assures us he hath accomplished — he could 
not, for instance, have made atonement for sin ; " One 
man cannot redeem another," saith the Psalmist <£ nor 
give to God a ransom for him," Ps. xlix. 7. He 
could not have paid the forfeit and penalty of death, 
and yet live. He could not have raised his own dead 
body from the grave. He could not have given life 
and immortality, by a resurrection of the dead, to 
those who were judicially dead in sin. None of these 
things could any mere man do, or if they could, why 
are such things ascribed exclusively to Christ ? This 
is a question the Socinians must answer, who allege, 
that he came into the world, or was born, merely to 
be a prophet and example of righteousness, or a 
teacher of the will of God to mankind, and died only 
to bear witness to the truth of his precepts ; but did 
not Moses, and all the succeeding prophets, come 
into the world to be teachers and examples, and ex- 
pounders of the will of God, many of them also seal- 
ing their testimony with their blood ? Why is the 
death of Christ spoken of as more than a mere testi- 
mony to the truth of what he taught? Why is it 
represented as a propitiatory and vicarious sacrifice ? 
Why did Christ himself say, he " came to give his 
life a ransom for many ?" And why was this so readily 
assented to by Paul, " Christ gave himself," says he, 
" a ransom for all." Could these things be said of 
Moses, or Jeremiah, or Peter, or James, or Paul? 
Are we justified by the grace of God through the 
redemption which is in Moses? Did Paul make 
peace by the blood of his cross? Was Peter, who 
also died on the cross, a propitiation, an iXacrfj-OQ, 
the means of appeasing the anger of God, of recon- 

c 2 



•28 



J. C. A "QUICKENING spirit." 



ciling him to us, and rendering him propitiatory to 
sinners ? 

But there are in Scripture other marked differences 
insisted upon : as when we read that the man by 
whom " came the resurrection of the dead," was 
born miraculously ', in fulfilment of antecedent pro- 
phecies ; when we read that he was born of a race 
and lineage foretold ; at a time foretold; in a place 
foretold ; that he was a being, who for particular ends 
and purposes, was " made man" was " made flesh" 
" took our nature upon him" became "a partaker of 
flesh and blood;" what can we conclude, but the being 
so spoken of was man, in a way that no other of the 
human race ever was man ? 

And this will appear still more plainly, if we look 
to the character given of him in other parts of the 
same chapter. We are there told that the first man, 
the man by whom "came death," was made "a 
living soul ;" but what living soul, we may ask, after 
the transgression of our first parents s could overcome 
death ? could counter-work what death had done ? for 
that is the true force of the original word. Certainly 
no condemned or merely living soul could do this ; 
and therefore the Apostle is careful to tell us, in the 
same place, that the second man, that is, our Lord 
Jesus Christ incarnate, who did overcome death, was 
not made simply a living soul, but also a " quickening 
spirit." Which is no less than to say, as is said of 
him in other parts of Scripture, that he had " Life 
and immortality in himself;" that as man he could 
in his body pay the penalty of sin, and as the ever- 
lasting Son of God, and one with the -Father, remit 
it also by virtue of his own atonement, and by raising 



DOCTRINES IN THE TE DEUM. 



'29 



us from the dead, admit us, through faith in him, to 
all the joys of heaven. 

Finely is this all expressed in the hymn we so 
often repeat in our public services : 

" Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ; 

" Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father." 

(A clear acknowledgment of his divinity.) 

" When Thou tookest upon thee to deliver man : 
thou didst not abhor the virgin's womb !" 

(A plain intimation of the assumed manhood). 

" When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of 
death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all 
believers. 

" Thou sittest at the right hand of God: in the 
glory of the Father. 

" We believe that Thou shalt come to be our 
Judge : 

" We therefore pray thee, help thy servants, whom 
thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood." 

To show that these doctrines seem to flow naturally 
from the words of the apostle, I shall copy the follow- 
ing remarks of two of our most eminent divines. 

" The manhood," says Archbishop Usher, " could 
suffer, but not overcome the sharpness of death; the 
Godhead could suffer nothing, but overcome every 
thing : he therefore that was to suffer and overcome 
death for us, must needs be partaker of both natures, 
that being put to death in the flesh, he might be able 
also to quicken himself 'by his own spirit." 

Bishop Pearson hath also the following observation : 
" If Christ were not the life," the dead could never 
live ; if he were not the " resurrection," they could 
never rise ; were it not for him that liveth and was 
dead, and is alive for evermore; had not he the 

c 3 



30 



ANIMAL AND SPIRITUAL LIVES. 



keys of hell and death, we could never break through 
the bars of death, or pass the gates of hell. 

In confirmation of all that has been said, the 
apostle, in the chapter before us, enters into further 
comparisons, he observes, that the first man, was of 
the earth, earthy ; but the second man, heavenly : or 
as we read it in our version, the " Lord from heaven:" 
that " as we have borne the image of the earthy, we 
shall also bear the image of the heavenly :" that there 
are bodies terrestrial and celestial, and that the glory 
of the latter differs greatly from the glory of the 
former, that there is a natural body and a spiritual 
body, " howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, 
but that which is natural, and afterward that which 
is spiritual ;" which is as much as to say, that as we 
are here, for a short time, to live an animal life in 
animal bodies, so we are hereafter to live a spiritual 
and ever durable life, in spiritual incorruptible bodies. 
" The body we have here," says Locke, on the pas- 
sage, " surpasses not the animal nature — at the re- 
surrection, it shall be spiritual. There are both animal 
and spiritual bodies; and so it is written, the first man 
Adam, was made a living soul ; i. e. made of an 
animal constitution, endowed with an animal life ; the 
second Adam was made of a spiritual constitution, 
with a power to give life to others." 

All this is so entirely consonant to what I have said 
above, that I could not resist availing myself of so 
high an authority, to prove that Christ was undoubt- 
edly the second man, and the second Adam, in the 
view and contemplation of the apostle, for the Jews 
had these distinctions, though in a different sense. 

" But why," it may be asked (indeed I think it 
has been asked), "should the Redeemer, notwith- 



IMAGE OF GOD DEFACED AND RESTORED. 31 

standing there were many millions of men in the 
world between him and Adam, be called the second 
man?" 

The answer has been judged to be very easy — be- 
cause these two men were the only men who could 
be accounted the prime fountains from whence all 
the rest of mankind did derive their existence and 
being; from the one (the first man), by carnal gene- 
ration; from the other (or second man), by spiritual 
regeneration ; but the answer, I think, admits of being 
carried farther, for as in the first man, the image 
of God was defaced by sin, the second man, as head 
of the new creation, interposes to restore and renew 
that image, regeneration, in its effects , being the res- 
titution of the same image of God, in which man 
subsisted before the fall. It is the remark of Witsius, 
in his work on the Economy of the Covenants ( de 
(Economid Fcederum J, that the passage in Genesis, 
" Let us make man in our image," is equally ap- 
plicable to both covenants, and marks the consistency 
of the whole ; the same economy (i. e. of a triune 
God) which appeared in the works of creation and 
nature, being now revealed to us in the works of sal- 
vation and grace. Compare Ephesians iv. 22 — 24, 
and Colossians iii. 9, 10, with Welti s Paraphrase. 



c4 



PART II. 



Having I hope, sufficiently shown in the foregoing 
part of my work, that in the opinion of St. Paul, 
Christianity is so entirely founded upon the Mosaic 
history as to admit of no separation, and that of 
course the credit of Moses is at the bottom of every 
thing connected with the faith of a Christian, I pur- 
pose next, without departing from the chapter origi- 
nally selected for discussion, to show how regularly 
the truth of the Mosaic history may be proved from 
St. Paul's reference to it. 

The world is already in possession of a most va- 
luable work by a living prelate, purporting to be a 
treatise expressly on the " Records of the Creation" 
to which, of course, nothing remains to be added in 
proof either of the moral attributes of the Deity, of 
the credibility of the Jewish History, or, as a necessary 
consequence, of that of their great leader and legis- 
lator, as it is usual to call him. 

But I know not that the records of the new crea- 
tion, have ever been so directly or effectually brought 
forward in confirmation of the records of the old crea- 
tion (if I may so speak), as to place both on exactly 
the same footing, not merely as regards Jews or 
Christians, but the whole race of man. That is, man, 
in all places and all countries ; man as the only rational 
inhabitant of this earthly globe, but above all, man as 
the fallen, but restorable image of God; the subject 



MOSES WROTE ONLY HISTORICALLY. 



33 



of all God's mercies in the great and stupendous mys- 
tery of redemption ; for it never should be overlooked 
or forgotten, that Christianity is, as a sensible writer 
has well observed, essentially the religion of fallen 
beings. 

Since the science of geology has become so attrac- 
tive, and consequently so fashionable, and new theories 
of the earth, or at the least, new expositions of terres- 
trial phenomena, are superseding each other in rapid 
succession, we are continually in the way of being 
told that Moses was no philosopher; that it is not 
reasonable to look to him for any resolution of exist- 
ing difficulties, or as a referee upon subjects purely 
scientific. All this may be true, and yet, without 
being a philosopher, he may be found to have given 
us information far more to be relied on, than all the 
systems of mere philosophy extant, whether old or 
new. 

For, it remains to be seen, whether as an historian, 
he has not given proofs of a knowledge of things alto- 
gether supernatural, considering the circumstances in 
which he must have been placed ; and if this be the 
case with him, as the historian of man, and of human 
concerns, it must lead to a strong presumption, that 
he cannot, in any instance, greatly have misled us in 
regard to the history of the earth. The latter topic 
must, however, be reserved for future consideration. 

I now, therefore, return to that celebrated chapter 
of the Bible, the fifteenth of St. Paul's first Epistle 
to the Corinthians. 

I consider it must have been a degree of inspiration 
or supernatural light, that could alone have enabled, 
or rather emboldened, the apostle to write as he did 
write in this chapter, to the people of Corinth. For 

c 5 



34 ADAM UNKNOWN TO THE CORINTHIANS. 

it is now time to observe more particularly, how con- 
fidently he tells them, not only, that " as by man came 
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead ;" 
but that, " as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive." In the former declaration 
there is no distinct mention of Adam. That he was 
" the man" by whom came death, is well enough un- 
derstood by ourselves without any mention of the 
name, and might have been well enough understood 
by the Jews who dwelt at Corinth, where indeed there 
was a synagogue. But this could be no great help to 
St. Paul ; for whatever his countrymen might know or 
think of a first man, or a first Adam, their prejudices, 
generally speaking, must have operated strongly 
against the apostle, as to the second Adam, or in 
other words, as to the character our Saviour sustained 
upon earth. 

In one sense, indeed, the Jews, however adverse to 
St. Paul's account of our Saviour, as the second Adam, 
must have been a help to him ; Corinth was not so 
far from Jerusalem, as to. favour any imposition, with 
regard to the appearance, life, acts, &c. of our Saviour. 
It must have been easy for them to ascertain the lead- 
ing facts of the case, (especially having Jews on the 
spot to refer to) — had the Corinthian Jews been able 
to deny positively that any such person as Christ had 
appeared in Judea, worked miracles, been put to 
death, and appeared alive again to many competent 
witnesses, they would no doubt have done so ; igno- 
rant they could not be of these things ; all the dis- 
persed Jews carried on a continual correspondence 
with Jerusalem, and many visited it every year. The 
apostle Peter was yet alive, and probably many of 
those to whom he had appealed as eye-witnesses of the 



TRYING SITUATION OF ST. PAUL AT CORINTH. 35 

resurrection, in his memorable address preserved in 
the Acts of the Apostles, chap. ii. 

Had St. Paul converted no Jew at Corinth, the 
very facts on which he rested his whole argument or 
doctrine might have been brought into question, but 
the conversion of Crispus, " with all his house," Acts 
xviii. 8, a person who was actually " chief ruler of 
the synagogue," was sufficient to show, that the facts 
of our Saviour's appearance, life, miracles, &c. were 
held to be indisputable even by those who, upon the 
common prejudice against our Lord's pretensions to 
the Messiahship, were otherwise so violent in their 
opposition to the apostles' preaching ; so violent, in- 
deed, as even to provoke the Greeks themselves to 
take part with St. Paul, and induce Gallio, the Roman 
Deputy, to dismiss with disdain, the accusation brought 
against him, pp. 14 — 17. 

Paul's situation at Corinth indeed was for some 
time most trying, and that he actually needed a divine 
impulse, to encourage him to bear up against the dis- 
advantages of it, is plain from Acts xviii. 9, 10, not 
only the rudenesses and violence of the unbelieving- 
Jews, but the learning, comparative politeness, and 
grandeur of many of the Gentile inhabitants of the 
city, had such an effect upon him, that he did not 
hesitate to acknowledge, that at first he was amongst 
them in " fear," in " weakness," and " much tremb- 
ling," 1 Cor. ii. 3. 

It remains to be shown how very much the view 
taken of Christianity by the apostle in this parti- 
cular chapter, must have run counter to the preju- 
dices of his Gentile auditors, as well as to those of his 
own countrymen the Jews. The second Adam only 
was the stumbling-block to the latter, but to the 

c 6 



36 



GREEK VERSION OF THE BIBLE. 



former, the first Adam, if we take into account the 
exact state of the Gentile world, in point of know- 
ledge as well as other things, in St. Paul's days, must 
have been little less than a subject of mockery. 

The apostle's expression, " as in Adam all die," 
was not merely a confirmation of the Jewish Scrip- 
tures, but virtually an abolition of all conflicting re- 
cords. It was not merely the establishment of a 
divine doctrine, but of the only true history and chro- 
nology of this habitable globe. It was to tell the 
proudest and vainest people upon earth, that they were 
little better than outcasts from the Israel of God, and 
had but one common ancestor with the despised Jews, a 
circumstance which it may be reasonably concluded, 
they were fully prepared to resent ; for, if they knew 
any thing of Adam, it must have been through the 
Greek Version, well known by the name of the Septua- 
yint, which was itself so ill received by the Greeks in 
general when it first appeared, as to be the very occa- 
sion of the publication, in the same language, of the 
extravagant computations of time past in the histories 
of Egypt and Chaldsea by Manetho and Berosus. 
It has been reasonably enough conjectured by the 
learned, that these histories being made public in the 
Greek tongue at the very period when the Jewish 
Scriptures were translated into that language at Alex- 
andria, were expressly intended to invalidate, and ren- 
der ridiculous in the eyes of the world, the chronology of 
the Jews ; indeed, so prone were the Greeks to mag- 
nify their own antiquity — to pretend that their history 
reached beyond all records, and that in fact they had 
sprung from the earth, that they cared not for any pre- 
tensions on the part of other nations. Thus, Herodotus 
could easily be brought to speak of myriads of years, as 



ADAM HEAD OF THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE. 37 

in fact he often does, and as well as Lis countryman 
Plato, bear to be told in Egypt of dynasties of kings 
reigning for ten, twenty, and twenty-three thousand 
years ; which latter was the exact period assigned by 
the priests of that country, in their communications 
with Diodorus to the succession of their kings from 
Osiris to Alexander the Great. 

So notorious, indeed, was the vanity of the Greeks, 
that though the coincidence in point of time, between 
the version of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Egyp- 
tian and Chaldsean histories, has led to the supposi- 
tion, that the chronology of the Jews was chiefly aimed 
at, yet others have thought that Manetho and Berosus, 
the authors, or rather first manufacturers of such mar- 
vellous antiquities, both wrote in Greek, to mortify 
their masters ; the Babylonians and Egyptians being 
at that time under the dominion of the Greeks. 

Be this as it may, it is of great importance to the 
credit both of St. Paul and Moses, to know, that 
such jealousies existed at the time I am writing of, as 
will hereafter appear. 

For it is very evident, that if the human race did 
not begin as Moses has represented ; if Adam were 
not, as the Jewish records assert, the first and very 
head of the whole race of man, it was in the power of 
any nation, by extravagant computations, fabricated 
records, &c, to carry back the age of the world, 
or commencement of sublunary affairs, to any point 
on which they should choose to fix. In the un- 
certainty to which those must have been liable, who 
either knew nothing of Adam, or disputed the history 
of Moses as preserved amongst the Jews, they had 
it manifestly at their option to make the world ten 
thousand, or ten thousand times ten thousand years 



38 



YUGS OR AGES OF THE HINDUS. 



older. And indeed where no such check has prevailed, 
they appear to have made full use of this liberty, for 
the very highest of the numbers I have mentioned 
have been exceeded by some. I should be afraid to 
mention the amount of the Hindu computation of one 
thousand fifty millions of years, if such extrava- 
gancies had not afforded to learned persons a clue, 
whereby to resolve, and bring into a wonderful agree- 
ment, the antiquities or rather pretended antiquities, of 
many nations; the latest and fullest application of 
this clue being reserved for persons scarcely yet cold 
in their graves. Of the nature of this clue some idea 
may be formed, from a reference to the Hindu com- 
putation just mentioned. The chronology of the 
Hindus is principally divided into four ages, all of an 
extravagant length ; the largest period extending to 
the immense amount of nearly two millions of years ; 
the second and third ages together, more than two 
millions of years ; and the fourth or present age, is, by 
their accounts, to last upwards of four hundred thou- 
sand years. 

Now, it is certainly remarkable, that making every 
allowance that could be claimed for the antiquity of 
the astronomical tables of the Hindus, on which such 
extravagant computations are supposed to depend, they 
do not appear, as historical records, to carry us back 
further than to such a period as might well be brought 
into agreement with the Scripture chronology. I do not 
say into exact agreement, nor is the agreement to be 
traced directly ; but yet into a degree of conformity 
not at all to be expected, if the world be either so old 
as the Hindu records pretend, or, which is more re- 
markable, at all older than the Mosaic era of creation, 
according to the largest Scriptural computation ex- 



m. bailly's opinion of them. 



39 



tantj I mean that of the Septuagint. According to this 
computation, the commencement of the fourth Hindu 
age, in which we are supposed to be at present, does 
not carry us beyond the era of the Noachic deluge, 
which era, according to the common copies of the LXX, 
is 3028 before Christ, and Mr. Bailly, who entered 
largely into the subject, had fixed the commencement 
of the fourth Hindu age at 3102 b. c. And as every 
Indian age is supposed to be terminated by a deluge, 
all this part of their chronology and history is strictly 
postdiluvian. The first two ages are entirely set 
aside as fabulous 1 : we have, therefore, only the two 
last ages for the history of man, amounting according 
to the Hindu computation, to 864,000 years added 
to what is expired of the supposed current age ; but 
as the former is held by Mr. Bailly to have consisted, 
as was common, of lunar years, or years of months, 
upon reduction they are brought down to 2400 solar 
years, which added to 3102, the years supposed to 
have elapsed from the commencement of the fourth 
age to the Christian era, make in all 5502 years; 
leaving a difference of only six years between this 
account and one computation of the LXX. There is a 
computation indeed extant which brings it within two 
years ; viz. 5500, the computation of Julius Afri- 
canus, Theophanes, Eutychius, and others. All this 
I had much more fully explained in my Bampton 
Lecture, now out of print. 

It would be most unreasonable to suppose it at 
all probable that St. Paul could have known any 
thing of the artificial manner, in which some of the 
tables and computations I am speaking of, have been 

1 In fact sixteen out of eighteen were discarded by M. Bailly. 



40 



APION'S MISSION TO ROME. 



constructed and put together, and yet if any of these 
reckonings, Egyptian, Chaldean, Phoenician, Indian, 
or Chinese, could have been supported by facts, his 
mention of Adam, as the progenitor of the whole 
human race, would and must have betrayed the 
weakness of his cause, especially to the proud and 
disputatious Greeks, whose reputation for learning 
was so great at that very time, that the Pagan world 
in general was, as Josephus, complains, notoriously 
disposed much rather to trust to their bold assertions, 
than to the sacred oracles of the despised Jews. 

It was but a short time before St. Paul wrote his 
first Epistle to the Corinthians, that the celebrated 
grammarian, Apion (or Apianus), had been expressly 
dispatched on a mission to Rome from Alexandria, 
to lay a complaint against the Jews, before Cali- 
gula, in which it seems, from the learned and able 
reply of Josephus, to have been one of his chief 
objects, to dispute the alleged importance and anti- 
quity of the Jewish nation. Here then is a case in 
point. It must have been a most critical time for 
St. Paul to fix upon, in which to introduce the name 
of Adam, as of the protoplast (to use a term of those 
very ages) or progenitor of mankind. The time of 
Adam, when once the attention of the Gentile nations 
could be sufficiently drawn to the fact, was established 
by the Septuagint or Greek version of the Old Tes- 
tament, which, to say the least, had assigned, com- 
paratively, so very low an era, for the origin of man 
(to say nothing of the earth at present) as naturally 
to excite surprise, if not absolute contempt. It was 
as much as to say, in short, in the face of computa- 
tions or assumptions reaching back to thousands and 
thousands of years, or even of ages (for so they have 



ALL NATIONS " OF ONE BLOOD." 



41 



been sometimes called) that the true history of man 
extended no farther back than to about four or five 
thousand years at the utmost. 

But "Indeed, St. Paul had openly proclaimed the 
same truths before the Areopagites at Athens, noted as 
it was, above all the other cities of Greece, for its 
devotion to religion, as we are told by Josephus, and 
perhaps I might add Sophocles ; justly apprehending 
that an ignorance of the true origin of man, lay at 
the bottom, as it were, of their polytheism, he par- 
ticularly exhorted the Athenians to consider that they 
were all derived from one stock, and all equally " the 
offspring" of one God ; as certain even of their own 
poets, Aratus for instance, Paul's own countryman, or 
Cleanthes (see Doddridge) had said : — " God," says 
the apostle, " hath made of one blood, all nations of 
men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and 
hath appointed the bounds of their habitation ;" which 
latter clause would seem to bear a strong reference to 
the system of local and tutelary deities, the very 
essence, as it were, of polytheism ; especially, if we 
adopt the reading of the Septuagint, Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, 
which would run thus, "when the Most High divided 
to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the 
sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people accord- 
ing to the number of his angels." 

Some critics, I know, omit the word " blood," Acts 
xvii. 26, but this only seems to make the case 
stronger ; for if the true reading be, 6< God has made 
of one, all nations of men," that one must, in the 
view of the apostle, have been Adam, which would 
confirm all that we have been saying. 

We must surely see in all this, the more than 
human courage and confidence of the apostle. Plato, 



42 



MOSES UNCONTRADICTED. 



in his Timseus, had laid it down as a maxim, that it 
was difficult to find the author and creator of the 
Universe, and if found, impossible (probably from 
the inveteracy of polytheism) to discover him to all 
the world ; and yet we have an apostle of the crucified 
Jesus, boldly discoursing of the one true and holy 
God, in the very sanctuary, as it were, of polytheism ; 
for so Athens was certainly accounted, and as St. Paul 
himself probably meant to insinuate, when he told 
them that he perceived they were, " in all things too 
superstitions" ^eKridai/uLovecFTEpovg, which perhaps has 
been better rendered 4 exceedingly addicted to the 
worship of invisible powers.' 

Considering then, that in the judgment of most 
wise persons, the history of man is, as Paul repre- 
sented it to be ; that the Hebrew or Scripture chro- 
nology, is, at this moment, admitted to be the surest 
guide we have, and that after all the researches that 
have been made on the globe, as we are now able to 
affirm, nothing of authentic history has been dis- 
covered to invalidate (as far as regards man at least) 
the Mosaic account of the origin of things, we may 
well conclude ; we may indeed be certain, that nothing 
less than divine inspiration, could have given St. 
Paul confidence enough to insist upon so low an era 
for the origin of man, or to point out Adam as the 
head and progenitor of the whole human race, to the 
polished nations of Greece and Rome ; the risk of 
contradiction must have been too great. The ex- 
pression so often referred to, " as in Adam all die," 
does so expressly carry us back to the Mosaic history, 
that there we are bound to make our stand. If St. 
Paul were right in his theology, Moses must have 
been correct in point of history, and both together 



GENTILE COMPUTATIONS. 



43 



conspire to give us such a view of sublunary events 
and transactions, as will be found, I should think, 
to exceed in interest all that can be possibly sup- 
plied from other sources, as to the connection sub- 
sisting between heaven and earth, or in fact, between 
God and man. 

We may not suppose that St. Paul knew nothing 
of the extravagant computations of the Gentile nations, 
because we have three remarkable instances of their 
being known to persons as nearly as possible, his con- 
temporaries ; Cicero just before him, and Diodorus 
Siculus, having referred to the Chaldean records for a 
computation of, at the least 470,000 years, and Jose- 
phus in his Tract against Apion, having cited both Ma- 
netho and Berosus, authors particularly implicated in the 
charge of falsification and premeditated perplexities. 

It must be very evident that St. Paul as well as 
Moses, if uninspired, must have written at great hazard 
of contradiction, ignorant as he must have been of 
many unexplored regions of the globe ; for in some of 
those regions, had the human race been older than he 
asserts, it could not but be possible, that more ancient 
records might come to be discovered, or some descend- 
ants of a pre-adamitical race be found : how much of 
the globe St. Paul might know we cannot pretend, nor 
is it necessary to ascertain : but it is rather remarkable, 
that we could nearly ascertain what he could not know, 
that is, what still remained to be explored. Two of the 
most diligent geographers of antiquity having been, 
as nearly as could be, the contemporaries of Paul, I 
speak of Strabo and Dionysius, whose works are well 
known, and from whom we have certainly derived as 
much geographical knowledge as could at that time 
be supplied, and it seems, as far as Strabo is con- 



44 



ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 



cerned, to amount to this ; the parts he describes were 
bounded on the north by the Baltic, on the east by 
the Ganges, on the south by the mouth of the river 
Senegal, and on the west by Spain. All the rest of 
the globe he seems himself to have acknowledged to be 
terra incognita, of which nothing but falsehoods had 
been reported to him. 

This is sufficient to show that it must have been at 
very great hazard of contradiction, while so much of 
the globe was yet unknown, that St. Paul could have 
ventured to refer the most learned people of Europe, 
the Greeks and the Romans, to the Jewish records for 
the only true history of the world ; and the observa- 
tion would apply still more strongly to Moses; had 
the latter not been inspired, I do not say he could not 
have written what he has delivered, of the origin of 
the earth and of man, but this I do say, in which I 
have the support of Grotius and many others, that he 
could not have written it without such probability of 
contradiction and exposure, when the parts of the 
globe unknown to him should come to be explored, 
that it seems to be almost a moral impossibility, know- 
ing all that we now know of the inhabited regions of 
the globe, and the absolute failure of all authentic 
conflicting or contradictory records, that any thing 
short of Divine inspiration could have supplied him 
with the information contained in the Book of Genesis. 
The most surprising, and yet the most credible book 
extant, all things considered, more credible certainly 
from the very extraordinary confirmation it received 
from our Saviour and his apostles, the apostle to the 
Gentiles particularly. For to what did this confirma- 
tion, let me ask, amount? No less than to a second 
inspired or Divine assurance, that the true history of 



st. luke's agreement with st. paul. 45 

the earth and of man, in their connection with each 
other, is only to be found in the Jewish records ; 
thereby over-ruling and superseding all the fond con- 
ceits of the Egyptians, Chaldseans, Phoenicians, 
Greeks, and Romans, by revealing to them this great 
truth, that the progenitor of the whole human race 
was Adam, that Adam, by whose disobedience sin 
entered into this portion of the universe, and death 
by sin. 

And as St. Paul (it may be added), thus ventured 
to speak of Adam, to the most polished of the Gentile 
nations, so did his companion, St. Luke, in the Gospel 
which he wrote, for the use of the Gentiles in Egypt 
and Greece, carry back the genealogy of the Saviour 
of the ivorld to the first man; a remarkable coin- 
cidence when duly considered, whether that Gospel 
was written before St. Paul's Epistle to the Corin- 
thians or long after, as seems to be the more general 
opinion. If before, it was a fit preparation for St. 
Paul's account of things ; if after, a strong and very 
direct confirmation of it. St. Matthew's genealogy, 
designed for the Jews, ascends no higher than to the 
legal descent of the Messias from Abraham and 
David, in accordance with their prophecies and expec- 
tations; St. Luke, on the contrary, carries back the 
genealogy through his mother to Adam, that the Gen- 
tiles might be sure that he was that " seed of the 
woman," who was to " bruise the serpent's head," and 
become the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. 

It may still be asked, what efTect had St. Paul's 
account of matters on the learned Greeks ? for on the 
unlearned, impressions may be made, especially reli- 
gious impressions, by statements little calculated to 
stand the test of severe criticism. An appeal to feel- 



46 



white's bampton lecture. 



ings is very different from an appeal to facts. We see, 
however, that Christianity makes her appeal to both. 
The most enthusiastic may find in Christianity enough 
to satisfy their fondest expectations, while in point of 
history she defies contradiction. 

Removed as we are from the Mosaic era of the 
creation by as many perhaps as six or seven thou- 
sand years, and from the commencement of the 
Christian era, by more than eighteen hundred, it is 
easy to say (though indeed these periods of time are 
nothing to what we shall have to speak of, when 
treating of the modern geological histories of the 
earth), but it is easy to say, that in such a lapse of 
years as the above amount to, so many ancient records 
must have perished and been lost, that it is absurd to 
expect, that in our days, any questions relating to 
the origin of the earth or of man can be satisfactorily 
decided. That St. Paul being a Jew, naturally adopted 
the chronology of the Hebrews, without overmuch 
inquiry or examination, and made converts only of 
those who were incompetent to such researches: I 
shall hope to be able to show that nothing could be 
farther from the truth. 

The first answer I shall give, will be merely to 
copy the following eloquent description of the state 
of things from Professor White's very celebrated 
Bampton Lecture. 

" At the time when Christ appeared, the Roman 
empire had reached the meridian of its glory. It was 
the illustrious period, when power and policy re- 
ceiving aid from learning and science, and embellish- 
ments from the orators and the poets, gave law to the 
world, directed its taste, and even controlled its opi- 
nions. It was the age when inquiry was awake and 

1-2 



ACCOUNT OF THE GENTILE WORLD, 47 



active on every subject that was supposed to be of 
curious or useful investigation, whether in the natural 
or the intellectual world. It was, in short, such an 
age as imposture must have found in every respect 
the least auspicious to its designs ; especially, such an 
imposture as Christianity, if it had deserved the 
name." 

Another author has observed of the writers of the 
New Testament, that they " lived in an age abund- 
ant with authors, full of most important historic cir- 
cumstances, wrote in a language whose authors, if we 
only reckon from Homer to his commentator, Eusta- 
thius, occupy the vast space of twenty centuries ; its 
subject is connected with the whole range of ancient 
history, sacred and profane, is interwoven closely 
with the records of the most civilized period of the 
classical age, and above all, is continued by a regular 
series of writers in the same language down to within 
four centuries of our own times." 

We may now then proceed to consider how far St. 
Paul may be said to have met with the support of the 
learned of the Gentile world, principally as an histo- 
rian ; or, the maintainer, in so accomplished, learned, 
and inquisitive an age, of the extraordinary fact, 
that the whole human race began with Adam, as 
Moses had represented. 

And first, it is certainly remarkable, that St. Paul's 
beloved companion and fellow labourer, St. Luke, 
was born and bred a Gentile, and if lie became a Jew, 
before he was converted to Christianity, as some 
think, it is plain that he must early and easily have 
been brought to discard the prejudices of Gentilism, 
for the true history contained in the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures; he, as well as St. Paul, has been judged to 



48 



THEOPHILUS ANTIOCHENUS. 



have possessed higher worldly qualifications and 
knowledge than the other apostles, and to have been 
therefore specially raised up, to assist in forming the 
new Church and society of Gentile converts l . 

But I have a few very strong cases to produce of a 
perfect acquiescence of learned Grecians in all that 
Paul asserted ; a perfect assent, not only to the doc- 
trines he taught, but to the chronology of the Bible. 

The first instance is of Theophilus, commonly called 
Antiochenus ; from the circumstance of his having 
been the sixth that filled the important see of An- 
tioch. This very eminent father of the Church had 
not only been an heathen, but one so exceedingly 
well acquainted with the most conspicuous writers 
among the Greeks, as to render his belief, and con- 
sent to, the chronology of the Bible, almost as im- 
portant as his conversion to Christianity ; for living, 
as is allowed, in the second century, and almost 
therefore a contemporary of St. Paul, it is remarkable 
that he should not only have found reason to give up 
all confidence in the writings of his countrymen, as 
to any correct knowledge of God, and his providential 
government of the world, but decidedly as to the 
sacred chronology. Fully admitting all the grand 
epochs of the Scriptures, from Adam to the Baby- 
lonian captivity, and being at the pains to connect 
therewith the chronology of Rome, to the death of 
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and nearly to his own 
death, which happened but a few years after. 

Here then we have an instance of an heathen con- 
vert of the very earliest times, writing as confidently 
as St. Paul himself of Adam, as the first man ; the 

1 Warburton's Divine Legation, vol. ii. p. 320. 



AUTHORS REFERRED TO BY THEOPHILUS. 49 



Protoplast as he expressly calls him, in a treatise, still 
extant, displaying such a knowledge of the writers of 
antiquity as is quite remarkable ; and which is the more 
important, because we have the authority of Origen 
for saying, that the Jews were notoriously unac- 
quainted with the Greek historians ; whatever credit 
therefore we may be disposed to give to St. Paul, 
for a degree of learning beyond the other apostles, it 
may not be supposed that he was acquainted with all 
the authors cited by Theophilus, any one of whom, 
for what he probably knew, humanly speaking, might 
have decidedly contradicted all he ventured to ad- 
vance concerning the early history of man. 

If any Jew had read the books cited by the learned 
prelate of Antioch, it must have been Josephus, who, 
according to the belief of Jerom, had studied and 
perused all the libraries of the Greeks ; but if this 
were so, we may well leave to Josephus the vindica- 
tion and defence of his own national antiquities. 

I shall now give the names of the authors cited by 
Theophilus ; and that not in any desultory manner, 
certainly not ostentatiously, but as any honest and 
anxious investigator of the truth might be expected 
to cite authorities. 

He refers then in various places to Homer, Hesiod, 
Orpheus, Aratus, Euripides, Sophocles, Menander, 
Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, Pythagoras, 
Diogenes, Democritus, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Plato, 
Zeno, Cleanthes, Solon, Anaximander, Clitomachus, 
Carneades, Pherecydes, Leucippus, Protagoras, Cri- 
tias, Euphemerus, Aristotle, Melissus, Parmenides, 
Anaxagoras, Phylemon, Aristo, Simylus, Chrysippus, 
Thales, Empedocles, Hippo, Dinarchus. 

We shall do well to recollect how many centuries 

D 



50 



THE CHRONOLOGY OF THEOPHILUS 



this was, before the art of Printing was discovered, 
or rail-roads provided for the march of intellect. 
Joking apart, the amount of references is certainly 
curious, and may serve to convince us that he was 
no mean critic, having, as he tells us himself, an 
anxious desire to bring to the proof, both the as- 
sumed antiquity of the prophetical books of the 
Hebrews, and the divine origin of the religion to 
which he had been converted. 

Here then, we have the full acknowledgment of a 
most learned heathen, that upon a fair and unshackled 
investigation of what I shall venture to call, the cre- 
dentials of Christianity, he had been brought to the 
conviction, that the true history of the earth and of 
man, was to be found only in the Bible; his own 
words should be cited. " Thus we may be sure," 
says he, " that the whole time (from the creation), 
and the years (since) are discoverable by those who 
are willing to inquire after, and obey the truth." 

And that this venerable father of the Church, 
knew what he was about, is clear from another pas- 
sage, in which he alludes directly to the pagan ex- 
travagancies ; " some of these writers," says he, " by 
declaring the world to be eternal, have boldly stretched 
and rashly launched themselves out into infinity ; 
others, indeed, who acknowledged it to have been 
created, reckon up from the creation thereof, fifteen 
times ten thousand, three hundred and seventy-five 
years;" for those who are old fashioned enough not 
to be startled at a little Greek, jivpiadag ttevte kcu 
Bekcl Km Tpicr^tXia sfiSojunqicovTa ttzvte £rrj ! 

I must introduce another passage from this author, 
as tending to show, that perhaps we have in the 
work of this earliest Christian chronologer, a more 



AGREES WITH JOSEPHUS AND THE LXX. 51 

correct computation of the actual age of the world, 
than in our common Bible. " Upon the sixth day, 
God made man, and man fell by sin ; so upon the 
sixth day of the Chiliad (i. e. sixth millenary age of 
the world), our Saviour Jesus Christ came into 
the world, and saved man by his Cross and Resur- 
rection." It is very possible that this may be nearer 
the truth than the celebrated Usserian computation ; 
it having the support of Josephus, and of the Sep- 
tuagint. Theophilus reckons 5507 years from the 
creation to the birth of Christ, and is an authority 
very much regarded to this day \ 

The same author appears to have written another 
work, entitled Fsveaig kogiaov, or the Generation of 
the world, and in referring to which in his discourses 
to Autolycus, he observes, that from that it would 
appear that the books on which those who, like him- 
self, worshipped the true God, depended, were by 
far more ancient, and more abundantly true, than all 
the accounts of the philosophers, or poets of Greece ; 
he is, indeed, very severe upon the latter, for pre- 
tending to know things, which, in their ignorance 
of the only true history of the creation of the world, 
and peopling of it, must have been merely fabulous, 
and in no manner comparable to the writings of 
Moses and the prophets, who lived not only very 
long before such writers were born, but before that 
multitude of gods whom they ignorantly worshipped. 
He compares with admirable effect, the inspired 
writers with the fabulous Greeks, in what they had 
delivered concerning the unity of God, the formation 



See Hales's Chronology. 
D 2 



52 



ATHENAGORAS. 



of the world, and the creation of man. He excellently 
also shows, the superiority of the Christian to the 
Pagan morality, by some most judicious but select 
comparisons, declining to go at large into so copious 
a subject. 

I have now done with Theophilus of Antioch. 
I shall next turn to another father of the same, that 
is, the second century, Athenagoras, whose case per- 
haps, in one respect, is rather stronger than the fore- 
going; for being a philosopher of Athens, "learned," 
as is allowed, " in all the wisdom of the Greeks, as 
Moses was in the wisdom of the Egyptians," he set 
himself formally to oppose the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, despising its pretensions, and questioning its 
history, till by a diligent study and perusal of the 
sacred writings, he totally changed his opinions, be- 
came converted like St. Paul himself, to the very 
faith he had been endeavouring to subvert, and of the 
superiority of which to all other religions, he be- 
came so convinced, as eagerly to turn his arms against 
the pagan systems of theology, pursuing them through 
all their turnings and windings, and showing them to 
be utterly absurd and ridiculous ; all these things are 
to be seen in what are called his Apologetics, of which 
an editor of the work thus speaks:— 

" Here may be observed, how the Christian exalts 
and raises the philosopher; how human learning in 
the Christian's mouth is like arrows in the hand of a 
giant. Let them consider Athenagoras disputing with 
the Sophists of Athens ; they will compare him to 
Moses, w r orking miracles among the magicians . of 
Egypt. The Sophisters make the appearances of 
arguments, but Athenagoras confutes and demon- 



CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS AND HERMIAS. 53 

strates; as the magicians by their sorceries made the 
resemblance of serpents, but Moses the true one 
which devoured the others." 

Another remark of the same writer, I cannot avoid 
mentioning as applicable to others besides Athen- 
agoras. "Some of the ancient fathers were masters 
of such human learning, as makes it impossible to 
imagine they could suffer themselves to be carried 
away by any gross imposition. All were not called 
to follow our Lord and Master from mending their 
nets, or from the receipt of custom; St. Paul was 
called from the feet of Gamaliel, and Athenagoras 
from the schools of Athens" 

Clemens Alexandrinus, another father of the second 
century, and by all accounts a most voluminous writer, 
had all his works descended to us, dwells, in his 
Stromata, (a miscellaneous work, as the title implies), 
on the utility of philosophy to a Christian, and extols 
it as being the instrument of preparing the Greeks for 
the reception of the Gospel ; he speaks of the origin 
of arts and sciences, and the history of philosophy 
among the Greeks and other nations, and shows that 
the Hebrews were the fountain whence all these ad- 
vantages had their beginning. Clemens, though 
established at Alexandria, was, as it is supposed, by 
birth an Athenian. Hermias, probably of the same 
century, became, upon his conversion, so persuaded 
of the futility of merely human attempts to resolve 
such questions, as Christianity alone could settle, as 
to have amused himself with writing in perfect deri- 
sion of all the heathen philosophers, whose discre- 
pancies and inconsistencies concerning the origin of 
things he particularly exposes. 

I shall not attempt to descend below the second 
d 3 



54 ON THE PREACHINGS OF THE APOSTLES 

century. My only object being to show, that when 
St. Paul wrote as he did to the Corinthians, of a first 
and second man, a first and second Adam, there were 
in the world learned persons, quite competent to in- 
vestigate the truth, as regarded history, chronology, 
and religion ; and exceedingly capable of making that 
comparison between the writings of the apostle, and 
those of almost all the profane authors then known, as 
should lead them to the conclusion, so abundantly 
acknowledged in their works, that it is to the sacred 
records of the Jews and Christians only, that we must 
look for the proper history of the Earth and of Man, 
and of that communication between heaven and earth, 
which has for so long been received and acknow- 
ledged, as a series of divine revelations. 

The following passage from a sermon of the Abbe 
de Cambaceres, preached before the French Court, in 
the year 1757, is very applicable and very eloquent. 
" Vous me direz qu'ils (les Apotres) userent d'adresse, 
qu'ils n'annoncerent d'abord ces tristes verites qu'aux 
pauvres, aux simples, et a ceux qui, par leur etat, 
etoient moins eloignes de les croire. Eh bien, suivez 
les Apotres dans leur marche, et voyez si c'est a la 
politique qu'ils doivent leurs conquetes? Ou le 
prechent-ils cet Evangile? dans les villes les plus 
opulentes et les plus corrompues ; a Antioche, a 
Ephese, a Alexandrie, superbes cites, ou le luxe et la 
mollesse enfantoient les plaisirs et les crimes. Ou le 
prechent-ils? a Corintlie, cette riche heritiere des 
depouilles de la Grece, dont St. Paul nous trace une 
si vive peinture, et qui, fiere de commander a deux 
mers, appelloit des bouts de l'univers la fortune et 
l'abondance : Corinthe, ou comme dans un gouffre 
de volupte, etoient venus se rendre tous les desordres 



BY THE ABBE DE CAMBACERES. 



55 



et tous les vices ; ou se trouvoit rassemble tout ce que 
l'antiquite payenne avoit pu imaginer de corruption 
et de licence, tout ce qu'elle avoit consacre par les 
charmes de la poesie et de la peinture, par les fetes, 
les jeux et les spectacles — voila ou paroissent Paul et 
Barnabe, ou ils prechent, ou ils tonnent; c'est sur 
cette terre ingrate qu'ils osent elever l'etendart de 
la Croix. — S. Paul enfin, dans ses deux Epitres aux 
Chretiens de cette ville celebre la regarde comme la 
plus riclie conquete de son apostolat, et la plus belle 
portion du troupeau de Jesus Christ." 

Speaking further of the preaching of the Gospel to 
the Gentiles, " ses premieres ecoles," says he, " ont 
ete les places publiques ; ses premieres chairs, les 
tribunaux et les echafauds; ses premiers auditeurs, 
les sages et les philosophes ; ses premiers triomphes, 
Rome et la Grece devenues Chretiennes au sein de 
1'idolatrie." 

The above extracts may serve to show how reason- 
able it is to turn to St. Paul's addresses to his Corin- 
thian converts, for the most exalted and comprehen- 
sive views of the Christian dispensation. 

In short, in St. Paul's admirable comparison of the 
first and second Adam, in his Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, we have the whole scheme of revelation dis- 
played before us ; we have the beginning and end of 
things unfolded to us, and brought together, as the 
consummation of all our hopes, all our expectations, 
and all our future prospects. 

Without this knowledge, man might still for ever 
"walk in a vain shadow, and disquiet himself in 
Vain ;" but here, all difficulties which might perplex 
us, in regard to ourselves, our nature, history, and 
future destination, are solved; without this knowledge, 

d 4 



56 



ST. PAUL CHALLENGED INQUIRY. 



there are in us all, contrarieties and contradictions, 
which might perplex and distress us from the cradle 
to the grave, such as the present corruptions, and, if I 
may so speak, littlenesses of our nature, compared with 
the grandeur of our hopes ; the misery of man, as the 
sinful and sinning offspring of our first parents, com- 
pared with the glory of man, when made by adoption 
and grace, a child of God, and through Christ, an 
" inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." 

I have now shown, at the hazard indeed of oifend- 
ing against the taste of the times, by what are called 
learned references, that Christianity was not intro- 
duced into the world, as a religion that was to bear 
down men's understandings, and supersede all in- 
quiry. There could not have been a more direct 
challenge to inquiry given than in St. Paul's address 
to the Corinthians ; and we see it was a challenge 
taken up and accepted, by no mean combatants in the 
field of literature, of science, and philosophy ; such as 
they were in those days; defective certainly; but by 
whom were these defects detected, exposed, and made 
known so effectually and so forcibly, as by those 
heathen philosophers, whose eyes became opened to the 
superior light of Christianity ? 

It is common to talk of the apostles as mere fisher- 
men, and of Moses as no philosopher — were this all 
true to the letter, believers know well that divine in- 
spiration could at any time have overcome such defi- 
ciencies ; but it is to shame and silence the contempt 
of unbelievers and the careless among the educated 
classes, that I am anxious to show, that Christianity 
from its very foundation (that is, as -intimately con- 
nected with the history of the first Adam), passed the 
ordeal of critical examination, eighteen hundred years 



KNOWLEDGE A QUESTIONABLE ATTAINMENT. 57 



ago, and was pronounced to be indisputable, not 
merely as a divine relation, but historically and chro- 
nologically indisputable ; and, therefore, not now to 
be set aside by any puny efforts of scepticism or infi- 
delity ; it need to be contradicted by positive and very 
clear facts. 

If all that we see and know can be rendered intel- 
ligible to a certain extent by what we read in the 
books of Holy Scripture, and no otherwise, those who 
turn away from the information they might there find, 
must be left to reap the fruits of their own ignorance, 
for ignorance I must have leave to call it, being a 
defect of knowledge that might be removed. Nor 
should it be overlooked, that knowledge after all, is 
an acquirement capable of measurement, and I might 
add, of analysis — no person living can know every 
thing ; nor can it be expected that the knowledge of 
any two individuals upon the face of the whole earth, 
should upon examination be found to be the same 
either in amount, substance, or quality; if we take 
account only of the quantity of the knowledge of any 
given individuals, as collected from casual observation, 
or study of books, it is very certain that we may 
arrive at very different results ; the observation and 
study of one may have determined him to become a 
sound believer, while the observation and study of 
another may have made him an hardened infidel ; and 
thus it is that persons accounted very wise, very 
learned, and very extensively informed, in a worldly 
point of view, may yet be grossly, nay inexcusably 
ignorant, of things of more consequence. To judge 
properly therefore of any man's knowledge as col- 
lected from the huge mass of information accessible 
to the public at large, it is almost as necessary to 
d 5 



58 



IGNORANCE, WHERE INEXCUSABLE. 



ascertain what lie has not read and considered, as 
what he has ; a man whose knowledge may not be 
over-rated in point of amount, may yet fall into great 
mistakes as to what he really does not know. While 
there is no end to the things, that by diligent re- 
search, and curious investigation, may become known 
to any man, there may be a few after all that should 
be known by every man. 

There can undoubtedly be no truths so important, 
as those which relate to heaven, the earth, and man 
its chief inhabitant ; if these three be unconnected, it 
must be granted, that to " eat and drink, for to- 
morrow we die," may be suitable enough to the short 
time we have to spend here; but if there be a book 
extant, of high and known character, which treats 
largely and most seriously of such a connection ; and 
which in most plain terms tells us, that it is indeed, 
" appointed unto all men once to die," but after 
that, " the Judgment" surely such information de- 
mands attention, and none can wilfully turn away 
from it without great hazard. It has been said, I 
know, and by persons reputed wise, that no man 
is accountable for his belief; but surely any neglect 
of proffered information on points of unquestionable 
importance, may render any man accountable for his 
unbelief, or at all events for his ignorance. 



PART III. 



Having now said almost as much as I intended to 
say of the sacred history of man, deliberately received 
and assented to, by most learned pagans, on the 
authority of St. Paul, as the minister of Christ, to 
the Gentile nations generally, but more particularly 
to the wisest and most accomplished of the Gentile 
nations, in fact the Grecians and Romans ; I pro- 
ceed to that of the earth, having of course, in this 
portion of my work, some observations to make on 
the researches and labours of our modern geologists. 
Labours I take leave to call them, for though I have 
not heard of their actually going to the bottom of 
wells to bring up truth from her proverbial hiding 
place, I have certainly heard much of their going 
to the bottom of most hideous caverns, in search of 
her, and of their having carried their researches so 
far, as to be able to tell us, not only all that has passed 
on the " heights above," of this terraqueous globe, but 
almost all that is passing, at the present moment, in 
the " depths below." 

No man can be less disposed than myself, to 
depreciate the very curious inquiries of this eminent 
class of naturalists, though I shall hold myself excused 
from any obligation to declare, how many of their 
conclusions I am disposed to adopt, and from how 
many I have hitherto been led to withhold all con- 
currence. In truth, though I have passed much of my 
d 6 



60 DIFFERENCES AMONGST GEOLOGISTS. 

time with geologists, been in communication with 
some of great celebrity, and even assisted them in 
making public the results of their inquiries, I must 
confess myself to be a still a learner. I am not sure, 
but that instead of getting on, I am going back ; at 
least, I have to forget and unlearn much, that I can- 
not say I had implicitly taken for truth, but which 
not very long ago, had interested me a good deal, 
supposing it to be at the least something like the 
truth. So little agreement has there been of late 
years amongst geologists themselves, that it brings 
to my recollection what is said of the ancient philoso- 
phers, by one of the early Christian fathers, just re- 
ferred to in the foregoing part of my book. 

" Parmenides" says Hermias, " opposes Anaxa- 
goras and Anaximenes ; he who follows Empedocles, is 
drawn away by Protagoras ; and from Protagoras by 
£ Thales, and from Tholes by Anaximander. The fame 
of Archilaus is great, but Plato dissents from him, 
and Aristotle from Plato. Leucippus ridicules the 
doctrine of Pherecydes ; those who follow the laughing 
Democritus, are called aside to a different system, by 
the wailing Heraclitus : Epicurus builds a world of 
atoms, and Cleanthes ridicules him for it. Carneades 
and Clitomachus, spurn preceding systems, and assert 
that the universe is incomprehensible; he notices 
further, the numerical mysteries of Pythagoras, and 
concludes from these discordant opinions of the 
heathen philosophers, that the truth was not to be 
found amongst them." 

With a variation only of the names, I much doubt 
if I could not from my own shelves, produce as long 
a list of discrepancies from the writings of geologists. 
But such accounts are easily to be found elsewhere; 



paley's maxim. 



61 



most of our modern treatises on the subject, having 
sections expressly devoted to the consideration of 
former systems, older and more recent. (See Cuvier, 
Lyell, &c.) Some of these systems, as may be seen 
in Cuvier, are little better than a mass of most extra- 
vagant conceptions, however ingeniously put together. 
His review of former systems is very judiciously suc- 
ceeded by a section on the " diversities of all the 
systems;" but then follows his own, parts of which have 
already a hard task to maintain their ground. Mr. 
Lyell's account of former systems is more copious, and 
extremely interesting; but while he does justice to 
some, whose principles had been misrepresented, I 
much doubt whether he does not do injustice to others, 
by mistakes or misrepresentations of his own, 

I must return to a maxim of the incomparable 
Paley, noticed before, to the following effect. 

" True fortitude of understanding consists, in not 
suffering what we know, to be disturbed by what we 
do not know." 

There certainly seems to be a great number of 
curious points in geology, which we do not know, 
* though books upon books are written upon them, and 
brought before the notice of the public every day \ 

Moses, in the mean while, is a good deal left to 
take his chance; he is pronounced to be no philo- 
sopher, and therefore no cosmogonist of any authority ; 
but if, being no philosopher, he should have so written, 
three thousand, two hundred and eighty four years 
ago, as to derive in some remarkable instances> an 
extraordinary confirmation of the truth of what he 
wrote, from the discoveries of even our most modern 



1 Fairholme, p. 2. 



62 



MAN A RECENT INTRODUCTION 



philosophers, it must surely be granted that he had 
preternatural help. 

Whoever takes up, though it be only for his amuse- 
ment, some of our most recent works on geology, 
Mr. LyelPs for instance, will find, that it is supposed 
to be perfectly ascertainable, that operations have 
been going forward upon this earth of ours, indicative 
of a past duration of 4£ countless ages," and yet it is 
by the same authors fully admitted, from the absence 
of human reliquiae up to a certain period, in the ex- 
amination of our strata, that the introduction of the 
human race was comparatively a recent event 

I am quite pleased with this discovery and acknow- 
ledgment, because it must have been quite mira- 
culous, that a writer so unacquainted with philosophy, 
particularly geology, as Moses was, should have been 
able to fix upon so low an era, for the commencement 
of human affairs, having evidently had it in his choice, 
if not inspired, to have fixed upon any other period, 
in the wide compass of 66 countless ages." Moses was 
no philosopher ; probably not, nor do I think he was 
any thing of a sailor, much less a circumnavigator of 
the globe. 

How then, I would ask, could he have ventured to 
say Adam was the first man, when, for what he could 
know, there might, in some regions of the globe, 
have been a succession of human creatures, for 
" countless ages ?" This is a case exceedingly de- 
serving of attention ; professor Playfair, in his illus- 
trations of the Huttonian theory, admits that the ob- 
jections raised against the high antiquity of the earth, 
" would be of weight, if it at all interfered with the 
Scripture chronology, which it does not" — " That the 
origin of mankind," he adds, "does not go back 



CONFIRMED BY GEOLOGY. 



63 



beyond six or seven thousand years, is a position so 
involved in the narrative of the Mosaic books, that 
any thing inconsistent with it would no doubt stand 
in opposition to the testimony of those ancient records. 
On this subject, however, geology is silent." Far 
otherwise, geology is not silent upon this subject : 
geology has spoken out as to the recent introduction of 
man, upon the present stage of human life ; but could 
Moses, I may ask, have known that he might rely upon 
the production, in time, of such a remarkable geolo- 
gical confirmation of his narrative ? I am not willing 
to rest my case upon proofs less intelligible than the 
above, and fully admitted at this very day ; it seems 
therefore, to be of considerable importance. Playfair 
was satisfied to show that there was no inconsistency ; 
but here we have a remarkable consistency discovered 
between the evidence of the earth, and the Mosaic 
record, and rather a new and unexpected one, not 
sought after by physico-theologists, but forcing itself, 
as it were, upon the notice and attention of professed 
geologists. At the same time, it must be observed, 
that the professor very properly speaks of six or seven 
thousand years, as the date of man's introduction, 
or creation, thereby including the antediluvian period, 
the fossil evidences of which will come to be con- 
sidered hereafter. 

Let us boldly and fearlessly at once give up all 
claim to the marine exuviae visible in our ancient 
strata, as exclusively proofs of the Noachic deluge ; yet 
it must be acknowledged that Moses describes just 
such a catastrophe, as may have produced submersions 
of continents, and elevations of sub -marine strata, 
correspondent exactly with what the face of the globe 
at this time exhibits. 



64 



Parkinson's organic remains. 



Moses was no philosopher — no geologist — granted ; 
but how then was he so wonderfully enabled to ar- 
range the order of created things in such admirable con- 
formity to terrestrial phenomena, as they now appear 
in a fossil state ? I do not cite Sir Humphery Davy's 
Table of Successions, because connected with the 
theory of an organic development, but I cannot re- 
frain from introducing the following passage from Mr. 
Parkinson's " Organic Remains" expressly alluding 
to the six dominical days : — 

" In the first of these periods," (or days of crea- 
tion), " the granitic and other primary rocks were sepa- 
rated from the water (Gen. i. 9). That this separation 
took place, as is stated in the scriptural record, pre- 
viously to the creation of vegetables and animals, is 
evident from no remains of any organised substance 
having been found in any of these substances. In the 
next period we are informed by Scripture that the 
creation of vegetables took place (Gen. i. 12) ; almost 
every circumstance in the situation and disposition of 
coal, accords with this order of creation. The crea- 
tion of the succeeding period was that of the inhabit- 
ants of the water and of the air (Gen. i. 20). In the 
next period, it is stated that the beasts of the earth, 
cattle, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth 
were made (Gen. i. 24). The agreement of the 
situations in which the remains of land animals are 
found with this order of creation is exceedingly exact, 
since it is only at the surface or in some superficial 
stratum, or in some comparatively lately formed de- 
position, that any of the remains of these animals 
are to be found. The creation of man was the 
work of the last period (Gen. i. 26), and in agree- 
ment with his having been created after all the 



ON THE ORDER OE CREATED THINGS. 



65 



other inhabitants of the earth, is the fact, that not 
a single decided fossil relic of man has been disco- 
vered. Thus a pleasing and perhaps unexpected 
accordance appears between the order in which, 
according to the scriptural account, creation was ac- 
complished, and the order in which the fossil remains 
of creation are found deposited in the superficial 
layers of the earth. That so close an agreement 
should be found of the order of creation, as stated in 
Scripture, with the actual appearance of the depth of 
stratification which has been examined in modern times, 
must satisfy or surprise every one. Moses could not 
have learned this accordance from the Egyptians." — 
Organic Remains, vol. iii. — Cuvier has made the same 
observations, and many others ; see De la Fite's Intro- 
ductory Remarks; but they must stand upon their 
own merits. 

It has been usual with offended, or perhaps rather 
too susceptible believers, to bring every part, almost 
every word of the Mosaic Cosmogony, and Noachic 
Deluge, to the test of natural philosophy. I should 
wish to take my stand on higher ground. I should 
wish to show that as Moses must have had preter- 
natural help in some parts of his narration, it is not 
likely that he should have been allowed materially to 
deceive us in other particulars ; and, while philoso- 
phers seem sure that they have found the right clue 
for the interpretation of nature, I should be disposed 
to ask, are they equally sure that they perfectly un- 
derstand the narrative of Moses ? 

It may be thought difficult to ascertain exactly, the 
precise length of the six days of creation ; much has 
been written upon the subject l . It has been thought 

1 See Mr. Perm's Comparative Estimate, and M. de la Fite's edition 
of De Luc's Letters. 



66 



ON THE SABBATH. 



that the mention of the evening and morning denotes 
one of our common days ; but it has also been alleged 
that before the fourth day, there could be no such 
evening and morning as we know now. Even Origen 
has noticed this ; I have nothing particular to say 
upon the subject. God's ways are not as our ways, 
one day with him, is, I am quite ready to believe, as 
a thousand years 1 ; but I must insist on the sacred in- 
stitution of the Sabbath. I discover in that appoint- 
ment, so much of the real and ineffable goodness of 
God, as to feel quite persuaded, that it is an heavenly 
ordinance ; and, therefore, without stopping to discuss 
minutely, as some have done, the specific productions 
of each of the six days, or the exact length of those 
days, I have recourse to the fourth commandment, as 
a part of the Decalogue ; and, though I cannot pre- 
tend to say how God "in six days made heaven and 
earth ; the sea and all that therein is, and rested the 
seventh day," yet so many things induce me to be- 
lieve that the Decalogue, is, in its totality (as is 
actually declared of the Sabbath itself, Exodus xxi. 
29), a gift from God to man, that I receive it as such, 
quite content to take upon trust, what I do not fully 
understand ; much in the same manner, as the gene- 
rality of the world, not being geologists, pursue their 
journeyings, and " occupy their businesses," on land, 
as well as " in" the " great waters," without once 
thinking it necessary to ascertain, how the fabric of 
the globe on which they engage in such transactions, 
came to be exactly as it is. 

I am not undervaluing geology as a distinct branch 
of knowledge, much less intending to- insinuate, that 

1 See the first chapter of Mr. Bakewell's excellent Introduction to 
Geology, and Fairholme's first chapter. 



CAUTIONS, &C. 



67 



it is a branch of knowledge adverse in itself to the 
credibility of the sacred writings; but as the books 
written upon the subject are becoming every day more 
popular and attractive, and may therefore fall into 
hands unprepared to draw the line between truth and 
hypothesis, between what the generality of the world, 
upon the surest principles of moral evidence, has a 
right to say, it does know, comparatively with what 
geologists themselves, when pushed to extremities, are 
ready to acknowledge, they do wo^know ; I am barely 
seeking to interpose some cautions, to prevent that 
disturbance, which in my estimation, and according to 
Paley's admirable maxim, would betray a palpable weak- 
ness of understanding. The very curiosity which sets 
philosophers to work, is to be suspected, or at least, 
watched; "Toute la philosophic," says Fontenelle, 
"n'est fondee que sur deux choses: sur ce qu'on a 
Pesprit curieux et les yeux mauvais ; ainsi les vrais 
philosophes passent leur vie a ne point croire ce 
qu'ils voient, et a tacher de deviner ce qu'ils ne 
voient point." 

Rousseau says much the same, " C'est une manie 
commune aux philosophes de tous les ages, de nier ce 
qui est, et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas." I do not 
apply this to the very respectable geologists of our 
own country, nor yet to the very assiduous and 
minute experimentalists of foreign states, but shall 
have the means of showing hereafter, that in some 
parts of the continent, geology long ago occasioned 
such a disturbance of previously established truths, as 
is, I fear, to this day much to be lamented. It is the 
disturbance of such valuable information as we already 
possess, which I am anxious to prevent; otherwise 

12 



68 



USES OF GEOLOGY. 



there can be no doubt, but that philosophy never took 
such cautious steps in its own line, as at the present 
time ; Sir John Herschel's Discourse, so lately pub- 
lished, will sufficiently show this. 

There must be great amusement, there may be 
much utility \ in the pursuit of such researches and 
inquiries, as now for some time have occupied the 
attention of professed geologists ; that is, of persons 
of real science, devoted to experiment, personal ob- 
servation, and nice discrimination of mineralogical 
characters, localities, &c. ; but, though these are 
justly to be distinguished from mere theorists, yet in 
all instances where their inquiries are checked, and I 
may say terminated, through a manifest failure of 
sufficient information as to things past, or out of 
sight 2 , my mind turns naturally to the Book of Job; 

1 See an instance of this in Mr. Mantell's Introductory Observations 
to his Geology of the South East of England, from Herschel, p. 18. 
It is evident from the case referred to, that geology may be negatively 
as well as positively useful ; positively by directing us safely to under- 
ground treasures ; negatively by preventing us from pursuing any rash 
undertakings in the hopes of finding, what, under known and very 
ascertainable circumstances, cannot be found. 

2 In order to judge of the number of things still unknown, which 
may have caused, influenced, or modified, the operations of nature, in 
the production of terrestrial phenomena, I would recommend the reader 
to peruse the very sensible remarks of Mr. Bakewell on the agency of 
subterranean fire in the formation of rocks and strata, and on the for- 
mation of metallic veins. — Introduction to Geology, chap. xvi. xvii. 
Dr. Kidd's Geological Essay, may also be referred to, for many in- 
stances of phenomena, likely for ever to baffle our researches. Of 
all geological writers, however, I would refer to Dr. Macculloch, who, 
after denouncing every theory of the earth from Epicurus, to many of 
my own contemporaries, De Luc, Dolomien, and even Hutton and Play- 
fair, in terms so abrupt and disdainful as to remind us of the old bur- 
lesque lines, — 



WORKS AND WAYS OF GOD " UNSEARCHABLE." 69 

surely there is One above, who may always be sup- 
posed to be in such maimer contemplating our feeble 
attempts, to measure and account for, the operation of 
his hands. " Where wast thou when I laid the foun- 
dations of the earth ? declare, if thou hast under- 
standing. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou 
knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon it ? Where- 
upon are the foundations thereof fastened ? or who 
laid the corner-stone thereof? Knowest thou it, be- 
cause thou wast then born ? or because the number 
of thy days is great ?" Job xxxviii. ; but the whole 
chapter need be repeated as a caution to the over 
curious and inquisitive of all ages. A caution [that 
is), not against inquiry but rash judgment; it is an 
extraordinary expression twice applied in the Scrip- 
tures to the works and ways of God, that they are 
unsearchable — that is not to be traced out, for that is 
the force of one of the terms used by the apostle, 
Rom. xi. 33, being a metaphor taken from quick- 
scented hounds, when they come to what hunters 
call a fault. When geologists come to a fault they 
do not always acknowledge it, but rush on, as though 
no impediment had occurred. Mr. Bakewell in his 
excellent introduction just referred to, gives some very 
just cautions upon this head. 

" Nothing is more easy with a philosophical wit," 
says a sensible writer, " than to build or destroy a 

It is, and it is not, 
It is not, and it is, 
And nobody knows but I, 

does, in his following " sketch towards a theory of the earth," most can- 
didly and in a manner equally abrupt, acknowledge his own ignorance. 
" I know not," " I cannot tell," " I will not presume to say," " I must 
leave it to posterity," and so on. 



70 



DE LUC. 



world ; but it is to be hoped, when they have wearied 
themselves with new contrivances, they will let us 
have our old world again." 

"If we would give credit," says the learned 
Dr. Nieuwentyt, " to those who pretend to tell us such 
things as how God made the world, put all things 
together, produced and continued motion, &c, &c, 
we must needs conceive, that there was no more wis- 
dom requisite to bring this glorious frame of the 
world into such a beautiful order as we see it, and 
to continue it in the same, than what the authors of 
such books were masters of." 

I can forgive those who are really well versed in 
physics for any pious attempts to reconcile the Mosaic 
accounts of the origin of things, with what we know, 
or think we know, of the actual operations of nature, 
because the operations of nature, are in truth the 
operations of the Deity himself, who gave the powers 
and established the laws by which nature acts; but 
even in this case, there is a difficulty of knowing 
exactly when God chose to act by his own previously 
established laws of nature, instead of his supreme, and 
all controlling fiat : without an admission of this fiat 
somewhere, I know nothing of natiwe ; after such an 
admission, I can, as I said before, freely forgive those 
who think they have detected in their researches any 
marked conformity between nature and revelation. On 
these grounds, I can forgive my old and very worthy 
deceased friend, De Luc, for his attempt to show how 
necessary to the first operations of the chaos (if there 
were any chaos), the introduction of light must have 
been ; and how consistently with the ascertained 
effects of light and heat (or fire), producing liquidity, 
Moses has described the presence of light to be one 



MR. GRANVILLE PENN. 



71 



of the first decrees of the Almighty (See his Geolo- 
gical Letters to Professor Blumenbach, edited by M. 
de la Fite, 1831 \) But I can also forgive Mr. Gran- 
ville Penn for thinking that without the intervention 
of any chaos it was in the power of God, to have 
brought this planet into existence for man's habita- 
tion by merely calling it, or rather commanding it 
into being. In both these cases much must depend 
upon conjecture, and where conjecture begins, I have 

1 it is probable that I may have no better opportunity of relating 
some rather remarkable circumstances connected with the above work. 
The date of its publication I have shown to be 1831 ; and, in a list of 
new works, bound up with it, the Letters of De Luc, which it contains, 
are openly stated to be, " now first translated from the French." The 
reader may guess my surprise at reading this, when he is informed that 
I had myself translated them from the French, so long before, as in the 
years 1793, 1794, and 1795, not perhaps from the actual original Let- 
ters to Blumenbach, but from copies in De Luc's own hand-writing, 
supplied by himself, and countenanced, as I understood, by Blumenbach, 
who had previously translated them into the German tongue. The 
mistake was quite accidental. Nothing could be imputed to M. De la 
Fite, (since dead, I lament to say,) who began his book with an im- 
mediate notice of my translations, as they appeared in the old series 
of the " British Clitic," and more than once refers to my Bampton 
Lecture (mentioning it always as the work of Dr. E. Nares, thereby 
distinguishing me from my late worthy relative, Archdeacon Nares, 
with whom I have been so continually confounded, that I much ques- 
tion whether my existence, as the author of my own works, would not 
be disputed to this day, in most of the booksellers' shops in London.) I 
could not well refrain from noticing this otherwise trivial affair, in re- 
ferring to M. de la Fite's republication of De Luc's Letters, especially 
as Mr. Sharon Turner, from a note in his late very curious Sacred His- 
tory, &c, appears never to have seen the Letters before. In the year 
1798, M. de Luc having revised and partly recomposed his Geological 
Letters, published them again at Paris, under the title of " Lettres 
sur V Histohe Physique de la Terre." M. de la Fite having had the ad- 
vantage of this last republication, his translation, of course, is so far 
preferable to my oWh ; though the latter had, at the time, the entire 
sanction of De Luc himself. 



72 



A CHAOS DOUBTFUL. 



recourse to God's word, that being the authority I 
can best confide in, wherever man's explanation of 
things falls short. 

If I am not very inquisitive then about the irQl 111/1 
Tohu-ve-Bohu of Moses, as some writers have been 
(no doubt with the very best intentions), it is merely 
because I feel that the decision of any such question, 
as, whether there was or was not a chaotic mass of 
elementary principles, whence all things came to be 
what they are, by a mixture of chemical and mecha- 
nical processes, is not essential to the stability of my 
faith in the holy Scriptures ; I am contented to know 
just as much as Moses has told us, namely, that "in 
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," 
that is the heaven, and the matter at least of the 
planet, or perhaps of the whole planetary system to 
which we belong ; and that at some given period, our 
own planet, the only one in the whole compass of the 
universe, with which we can pretend to be at all 
familiarly acquainted, was so unfit for the habitation 
of man, so unprovided with the abundance of things 
we now see around us, of use and ornament, comfort 
and convenience, as to be comparatively, "without 
form or void," or as Mr. Penn renders it, and perhaps 
with the weight of authority on his side, "invisible 
and unfurnished." I am not desirous of reviving a 
chaotic geology^ if it may be said to be with general 
consent abandoned, but as the idea of a chaos has 
prevailed through many ages, and it seems doubtfuJ 
whether the heathen poets from Hesiod downwards, 
did not obscurely refer to the account of Moses, 
I shall offer some remarks, on this well known origin 
of things, with a hope of, at the least, clearing away 
some injurious misrepresentations. 



ANTI-CHAOTIC SYSTEMS. 



73 



M. De Luc and Mr. Penn \ may with good reason 
be brought forward at this time as the champions of 
the chaotic and anti-chaotic systems ; the former having 
the support of almost all antiquity 2 , the latter of 
Bacon and Newton, as he insists, and also of certain 
critics and Biblical scholars of no mean name, par- 
ticularly Rosenmiiller. I shall offer a few observa- 
tions upon both, begging, however, to be understood 
as writing simply for the information of those who 
are not confirmed geologists, but in the way of be- 
coming acquainted with the writings, lucubrations, 
and proceedings of those who are, many of whom, I 
am quite willing to believe, are not aware of the 
unfortunate tendency of some of the very terms and 
expressions used in the display of their opinions, 
and upon which I shall have to offer some remarks. 

M. De Luc admitting a chaos, (as well described 
perhaps by Ovid, at the commencement of his Meta- 
morphoses 3 , as by any writer before or since 4 ), con- 
ceives it to have been an heterogeneous mass of ele- 
mentary ingredients, incapable of reduction into order, 
without the addition of some principle 5 , which by 

1 To Mr. Penn may now be added Mr. Fairholme, whose geology of 
Scripture had not been published when this was first written : had I 
seen it in time, it is probable I might have relinquished the present 
undertaking ; but some passages in Mr. F's introductory chapter, have 
determined me to proceed. 

3 Bampton Lecture, p. 279. 

3 I refer to Ovid, because the very idea of a chaos is now so exploded 
by certain geologists, that I had rather have my reference to such a 
commencement of things attributed to a mere school-boy predilection, 
than to any more mature opinion of my own, as a cosmogonist, or philo- 
sopher ; besides Mr. Lyell himself, very fairly refers to the same classical 
authority for some support on the part of Pythagoras. 

4 See Lyell's reference to Ovid, xv. 

5 See De La Fite, p. 43. 52. 

E 



74 



PROPERTIES OF LIGHT 



producing liquidity ; might give scope for chemical oper- 
ations and combinations. To this principle, the very 
principle apparently wanting to Werner's own system 1 , 
M. De Luc judged, that he had been regularly con- 
ducted by his philosophical investigations of the pro- 
perties of light, and we ought not to wonder that 
having worked his way back, as it were, analytically 
to such a first principle, he should be struck with the 
extraordinary agreement between his assignment of 
the commencement of physical operations, and the 
first grand and sublime fiat of the Almighty, 44 Let 
there be Light." For the credit of De Luc, this 
should be particularly attended to ; he never meant 
to make more of secondary causes, than as he could 
trace them up to a first cause. The following I copy 
from a MS. of his own. " Is it possible to determine, 
from clear monuments, what has been the first ob- 
servable effects produced, by physical causes, on our 
globe ?" having as he thought found the first principle 
of such causes and effects, in light, the next step he knew 
to be to the fiat of God, as recorded by Moses. There 
his physicul researches terminated ; he recollected pos- 
sibly the magnificent but unanswerable question put 
by the Almighty to Job, " Where is the way where 
light dwelleth?" that he presumed not to say, but 
spake only of its effects, as a first physical cause. How 
very consonant is this, to the following passage in 
Mr. Whewell's Bridge water Treatise ; 44 if we esta- 
blish by physical proofs, that the first fact which can 
be traced in the history of the world, is, that £ there 
was light,' we shall still be led, even by our natural 
reason, to suppose, that before this could occur, God 
said 4 Let there be light,'" page 191. 

l Werner's System, see Bakewell, p. 216, 217- 



FIRST FORMATIONS. 



75 



Mr. Penn totally discards all ideas of a chaos, 
or confusion of elements, as derogatory to the 
majesty and omnipotence of God, conceiving it to be 
most natural, as well as most decorous, to conclude 
that if this planet were ordained to become at any 
given time, the habitation of man, whatever appear- 
ances the solid parts of the earth may now bear of 
chrystallization, precipitation, &c. they were called 
into being at once, as first formations, and entirely 
without the intervention of such secondary causes, as 
have been known to act since. 

In both these cases, we have a beginning of things 
clearly assigned, and that in conformity to Scripture ; 
which is certainly not the case with other more 
fashionable theories. " The result therefore of this 
physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of be- 
ginning, no prospect of an end." (Theory of the 
Earth, &c. by James Hutton, M. D.) But surely the 
first and successive appearances of organic reliquicB, 
were so many direct vestiges of a beginning as to that 
portion of the creation ; and one beginning is, for our 
purposes, as good as a hundred l . I do not indeed 
wonder that Dr. Hutton could find no beginning, for 
if all the continents that have ever appeared (according 
to his system), should have owed their structure and 
contents to the destruction of former continents, I 
know not what the first destructible continents could 
have been, except indeed such a first formation pro- 
duction, as Mr. Penn has described; and then our 
own earth may as well be a first formation as any ; 
for if not eternal, it must at one time or other have 
been just as old, as we account it to be now, and 



See Buckland's Inaugural Lecture. 
E 2 



76 



PROOFS OF A BEGINNING. 



no older. There is another thing to be considered 
with regard to Dr. Hutton's first continent, if such 
ever existed; namely, that not having itself been 
subject to any of those destructive forces, incident to 
succeeding continents, it must have been destitute of 
all loose materials, such as sand, gravel, &c. ; and in 
all respects different from our present habitable earth. 
I am sorry to see such an eminent naturalist as Mr. 
Mantell, in his account of the fossil organic remains 
of Tilgate forest, speaking without scruple of the 
eternity of the past; whereas the strata of the earth 
pretty evidently show, as it has been remarked, that 
there was a period, when life did not exist here. ( See 
Griffith's Cuvier.) Mr. Whewell, in his Bridgewater 
Treatise, very rightly observes, that in the changes 
that have occurred upon the globe, there are evidences 
of termination as well as of commencement. Before I 
have done with a chaos, however, I would observe that 
there is a clause in the second verse of the first of 
Genesis, which would seem to tell both against M. 
De Luc and Mr. Penn, " darkness" being " upon the 
face of the deep" sounding very like the description 
of a turbid chaos, yet evidently needing not the pre- 
sence of light (v. 3.) to produce liquidity; for what 
is called " the deep" above, is immediately afterwards 
called " the icaters ;" and though we should grant to 
Mr. Penn, the sanction of the older interpreters for 
the rendering Tohu, <s invisible," yet the very terms 
used for " the deep" and " the waters," have not only 
been held to signify tumult and turbid confusion, but 
a state of fluidity also \ 

? See Patrick and Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon, Arts, nftn and p s . 
According to M. De Luc indeed, water itself was originally only in its 
elementary state, and without light and fire, not liquid. 



POWER OF GOD. 



77 



Be this however as it may, both systems may be 
considered, as far as the intentions of the authors are 
concerned (Mr. Penn may speak for himself, I can 
answer for M. De Luc) as very pious and reverential 
approaches towards the unsearchable things of God. 
M. De Luc's theory, however plausible as a beginning 
of chemical processes, cannot be proved, for we can- 
not take upon ourselves to say, that the condition of 
things was ever precisely such as he describes ; Mr. 
Penn's idea of primitive formations independently of a 
chaos, cannot to a certain extent be contradicted ; be- 
cause we certainly cannot pretend to affirm that God 
could not as easily make a perfect world, as a perfect 
man, a perfect tree, or any other prototype of a future 
series. 

As this however is the sum of Mr. Penn's reason- 
ing in support of his anti-chaotic principle, of first for- 
mations in all the three kingdoms of nature, it ought 
to be mentioned that there is an exceedingly good 
note, in the appendix to M. de la Fite's book, partly 
supplied by the younger M. de Luc, to show, why 
Mr. Penn's idea of first formations, does by no means 
so perfectly apply to the mineral as to the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms. 

It may therefore have been as M. De Luc says ; it 
may have been as Mr. Penn says ; and I must confess 
I do not yet see, why it must have been as those say, 
who equally deny M. De Luc's chaotic commencement 
of things, and Mr. Penn's original formations. 

In venturing to say at the present time, that it may 
have been as M. de Luc says, I ought perhaps to let him 
speak for himself ; for the generality of people are so 
apt to consider fire as an element, productive alone of 
all the effects it is known to operate, that it is almost 
e 3 



78 



DE LUC MISUNDERSTOOD. 



necessary to observe, that in De Luc's opinion, with- 
out light there could be neither fire nor heat. In a 
manuscript now lying before me, he asks, " What 
is fire ? is it an element, or a compound?" and 
then reverting to his own very curious experiment 
in meteorology, conducted carefully according to 
the strictest rules and principles of Bacon, he asserts, 
that every thing had concurred to prove, that "fire 
the cause of heat, is a compound, formed of light, and 
of another substance which enters into the composition 
of almost all terrestrial bodies, and is disseminated in 
the atmosphere, gradually less and less as the distance 
from the base increases." Light, therefore, he con- 
cludes to have been essentially necessary to the very 
first chemical processes that could have taken place on 
our globe ; without it, even water could not have be- 
come fluid. Mr. Fairholme seems to think, p. 54. 
that neither fire nor water were properly accounted 
for by the chaotic philosophers, but surely De Luc 
had tried to account for both ; and I am the more 
concerned to make the observation, by what that 
respectable writer has said in his introductory chapter 
upon the same subject. It is impossible to think the 
following passage can apply to De Luc's theory : st In 
adopting secondary causes then, or the theory of the 
formation of the earth by the mere laws of nature from 
an aqueous chaos, we must account for fluidity without 
heat, an effect without a cause, an^ directly opposed to 
all the known laws of nature," p. 17. One might 
fancy this were written in defence of De Luc, who 
not only saw the need of fluidity as a cause, but found 
the cause in a fiat of the Almighty, which clears him 
of another charge, p. 16, the neglect or oversight 
of a great first cause. M. de Luc deserves, 



PHYSICAL CONCLUSIONS. 



79 



least of all theorists, to be confounded with those 
continental infidel philosophers, to whom Mr. Fair- 
holme alludes in the same chapter, p. 4, as I shall 
have the means of showing. I shall make one more 
extract from Mr. Fairholme, as it literally expresses 
M. De Luc's mode of proceeding, were his theory in 
all other respects unexceptionable. " In entering 
then upon our geological inquiries, it appears the 
more natural course to proceed upwards, from mate- 
rial things as they are now presented to our senses, to 
the First Great Cause by which alone they could have 
been produced; and then, consulting such history as 
may be within our reach, to retrace our steps down- 
wards, from the beginning of all things, to the present 
time." Now this was precisely the method of De 
Luc : he first discovered the necessity of fluidity to 
all chemical combinations ; the need of heat as a cause 
of fluidity, and the need of light as a cause of heat ; 
and surely he could not avoid being pleased to find, on 
turning to the only history he could consult upon such 
a subject, that the first recorded flat of the Almighty, 
with regard to the surface of this planet was, " let 
there be Light." Mr. Fairholme himself very rea- 
sonably observes, that supposing the moon to have 
been placed, on the first day of the creation, in the 
same relative situation as to the sun and earth she now 
holds, she could not have been seen from the earth, 
till the fourth evening of the Mosaical days, consonant 
to Gen. i. 14 — 19. Such coincidences may well be 
expected to interest the pious believer. 

I am not willing to forego the knowledge, such as it 
is, of a Beginning, with which the Scriptures supply 
us ; geology at the best, soon conducts us to a " ne 
plus ultra!'' barrier ; beyond a certain point, all is sup- 

e 4 



80 



CALCULATIONS FALLACIOUS. 



position and conjecture. " In every department of 
nature," says Mr. Bakewell, " our inquiries are ter- 
minated by ultimate facts, beyond which further re- 
search becomes vain." As to the destroying and renovat- 
ing processes now said to be going on, by slow 
degrees, I must beg to be permitted to withhold my 
assent. It is mere supposition; and if Mr. Lyell be 
fairly represented in a certain journal of rather a 
recent date, supposition upon supposition ; " These 
powers, of fire and water," says the journalist, " as 
shown in the earthquake, and avalanche, the volcano 
and the flood, &c, he (that is the eminent lecturer 
referred to) watches in their momentary operations, 
and multiplies them in his imagination, by the effects 
of ages V 

Now with all possible respect for Mr. Lyell, whose 
extensive observations and very able researches seem 
justly to have placed him in the highest rank of 
modern geologists, I must say, I do not like im- 
aginary backward calculations, either in history, astro- 
nomy, chronology, or geology 2 . I do not like to read, 
as I have read, of 4 4 the infinity of time giving to the 
discoveries of the geologist, the sublimity which is 
conferred by the infinity of space on those of the 
astronomer." The cases are widely different : of the 
infinity of space with respect to the heavenly bodies, 
we have almost ocular demonstration ; of the infinity 

1 See Mr. Fairholme's remarks, p. 107, 108. 

2 We have a curious instance of the fallacy of such calculations in 
Cuvier, relative to the iron mines in the Isle of Elba. One writer, 
judging from the amount of rubbish carried out of them, having sup- 
posed them to have been wrought for more than 40,000 years ; which 
from the very same data another author reduced to little more than 
5000, and there is little doubt but that the latter also is much too high. 



DIFFICULTY OF ASSIGNING ERAS AND EPOCHS. 81 

of time as regards this globe of earth, we have no 
demonstration at all ; and as for the sublimity of such 
an idea, I must acknowledge that my mind is too dull 
to perceive it. To me the sublimity appears all on 
the other side. As far as regards the omnipotence of 
God, the shortest appears to be the most sublime 
account ; and though I do not wish to be called upon 
to decide between those who contend for the strictly 
definite, or indefinite length of the six days of the 
creation, I cannot help believing that Moses has told 
us as much of the beginning of things as any of us 
need to know. Still, however, as to much that re- 
mains to be known, we are comparatively yet in the 
dark, and likely enough to continue so; though if 
science can fairly and experimentally attain to such 
discoveries, I am willing to grant that it never was 
more in the way to do so. I cannot forbear to copy 
the remarks of a sensible writer upon this head, 
though on some points I may perhaps differ from 
him. " That the external crust of this globe has 
undergone several changes and modifications, more or 
less general, and more or less violent, modern re- 
searches have proved satisfactorily enough : that these 
changes must have been successive, in point of time, 
is more than presumable from the character and state 
of the fossil remains found in the different formations ; 
but though we are accustomed to talk of the eras of 
such formations, we are very far removed indeed 
from any thing like the precision of certainty on this 
point. Without the fossils nothing could have dis- 
proved the position that all the known strata of the 
globe had been formed simultaneously: but even 
with them no man can pretend to assign the time 
in which such and such formations were produced. 
e 5 



82 



INTERIOR OF THE EARTH. 



Therefore whatever may be asserted, concerning the 
immense antiquity of this globe, must be considered, 
if not false, to be at least conjectural. When they 
speak indefinitely of myriads of ages, which costs 
nothing, as Cuvier remarks, but a dash of the pen, or 
with greater absurdity, pretend to assign definite 
epochas \ we cannot but admire the fancy from which 
such reveries proceed, and smile at the credulity 
which believes them." 

In another place, the same author observes as fol- 
lows : — 

" And after all, are we much more enlightened 
respecting the recesses of the earth itself? what pro- 
portion does the degree to which we can penetrate 
bear to the diameter of the globe 2 ? who can tell 
whether the impassable granite constitutes a solid 
nucleus of this planet, or reposes itself on other strata, 
concealing marvels as great, as those with which we 
are already acquainted, but unlike them, destined per- 
adventure to remain for ever impenetrable to human 
investigation. Again, how small a part of the crust 
of the earth has been examined, and what proportion 
does that bear to its entire superficies? and, lastly, 
have geologists been invariably successful in disen- 
tangling the confusion of strata, in numbers of loca- 
lities, and in accounting for the causes of such con- 
fusion 3 ?" 

1 I know not whether this can be held to allude to such epochs as the 
following, of which Mr. Mantell writes, the " Iguanodon Epoch,'' the 
" Cretacious Epoch," the " Wealden Epoch," the " Elephantine Epoch," 
the " Modern Epoch," the " Human Epoch," &c. 

2 It is calculated that, after making the greatest allowances even for 
the depths of our seas, there would remain 7990 miles of its diameter, 
which must for ever remain concealed from our view. — Fairholme. 

■ 3 Griffith's Fossil Remains, 1830. 



NUCLEUS OF THE GLOBE. 



83 



As to the remarks of the writer just cited, concern- 
ing the nucleus of the globe, and all that may be below 
the impassable granite, if I may make the observation 
without appearing impertinently ludicrous, I should 
say, that our geologists may {fully to satisfy their 
curiosity, and the curiosity of the public) have per- 
haps a journey to take, they little think of, and yet 
not beyond their powers ; the " spirit of a geologist," 
as has been hinted, being free to carry him " per 
omnes terrasque tractusque maris, ccelumque pro- 
fwidum" — Lyell. For if our earth be not as Leibnitz 
supposed, an extinguished sun, it is, according to 
Buffon, as all theorists must know, part and portion 
of the very body of the sun itself, and consequently 
composed of the same materials, granite of course in- 
cluded \ Or if they should not like to go quite so far 
as the sun, they may stop at Venus or Mercury 2 , and 

1 Lehman, director of the Prussian mines, in an " Essai d'une 
Histoire Naturelle de Conches de la Terre," conceived all our primitive 
rocks to be parts of the original nucleus of the globe. Buffon himself 
considered granite to be the true solar matter, unchanged but by its 
congelation. One writer, Mr. Marshall, judged the earth to be formed 
from meteoric stones, which arriving from other spheres, brought with 
them the organic bodies of other worlds, whence the lost species of our own 
must ever be sought in vain, without at least, the powers of Micro- 
megas. " It is not surprising," says Dr. Maculloch upon this, " that 
geology has been a subject of ridicule." 

2 As useful itineraries for such a journey, I would recommend Ma- 
crobius in Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. c. 12, and Baron Swedenborg, on 
" the Earths in our Solar System;" but above all the Itinerarium Exsta- 
ticum of Athanasius Kircher, from which I could make many extracts 
exceedingly applicable to the subject in hand, very particularly as to 
the theory of De Luc, in representing light to be the very principle 
wanting to give scope for all those processes, by which the surface of 
the earth became what it is. Had the theorist seen occasion to express 
his ideas in Latin, I could have pointed out several passages in Kircher } 

E 6 



84 



PLANETARY BODIES. 



inquire if any of their inhabitants Lave found out 
what granite is ; whether of aqueous or igneous 
origin ? and whether any thing lies below it ? for, if 
the earth be part of the sun, all the other planets are 
so also, and there is no knowing at this distance, what 
proficiency their physiologists may have made in the 
study of their respective habitations. Perhaps in their 
travels, they may learn something about that unfortu- 
nate planet, which seems to have received damage in 
its original projection from the sun, or afterwards, by 
collision with a comet ; I mean the planet, sup- 
posed, not without reason to have become divided 
into four parts, forming our newly discovered aste- 
roids, or telescopic planets, as they are called, 

Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta Is this 

mere banter ? far from it. " If man," says Mr. 
Lyell, ' 4 could witness the birth of other worlds he 
might reason by induction upon the origin of his 
own." No person living can entertain more exalted 
ideas than myself of the immensity of the universe, 
and, as a consequence of i t, of the plurality of worlds ; 
and, though I look upon Buffon's system, to be in 
many respects but an amusing work of fancy, I am 
much disposed to think there is a great affinity in the 
circumstances of all the planets of our system. This 

scarcely requiring the alteration of a word. He even calls light, in 
reference to a chaos, the entelechia, or principle of motion, tending to 
order and perfection. It may be said perhaps, that Kircher was a 
visionary, and no better a philosopher than Moses or De Luc ; but 
he was very learned and very entertaining : and if we are to give up 
history, and struggle only for a preference of guesses and conjectures, 
I must say I like some of Kircher's guesses as well as any. 

1 See Turner's Sacred History of the World, Letter ii. p. 55, 56, and 
the Annuaire for 1832. See also Sir John Herschel's Discourse on 
Natural Philosophy, 308. 



PLURALITY OF WORLDS. 



85 



is no new opinion ; very long ago I printed and pub- 
lished a treatise expressly on the Plurality of Worlds, 
designed to show, that as a philosophical opinion, it 
was not inconsistent with the language of the Holy 
Scriptures; that many of the expressions in the 
latter, in their original tongues, admitted of such an 
extension, as to include other worlds besides our own ; 
and, that in reality the great scheme of redemption, 
might pervade all the systems of God's creation, as 
well as this ; so that universally there should be found, 
where wanted, as well one Mediator, as one God — 
EIS 0EOS EI2 MESITHS (1 Tim. ii. 5), which 
was the title of my book. The book itself was 
quickly out of print, and being soon occupied with 
other things, I never applied my mind to the publi- 
cation of a second edition ; but on looking back to it, 
I find many things in it, applicable to the subject of 
which I am now treating, and a variety of authors 
referred to, in proof of the planets being all of one 
creation, as dependent on the same sun for light. 
Among these references, I find two treatises by Dr. 
Samuel Pye cited, published in 1765 and 1766, one 
entitled " Moses and Bolinghroke," the other, " The 
Mosaic Tlieory of the Solar and Planetary System ;" he 
is at the pains to show that the first and second chap- 
ters of Genesis would, with very trifling allowances, 
as well apply to Jupiter or Saturn, and their inha- 
bitants, as to the earth, &c. This was meant as an 
answer to Lord Bolingbroke, who had objected to 
man's being made by Moses the final cause or object, 
if not of the whole creation, yet at least of our system. 
The application of the two chapters is very ingenious, 
and I think just. 

But our modern geologists are not over anxious, I 



86 



OBJECT OF MODERN GEOLOGISTS. 



believe, to ascertain where our planet came from, or 
what other bodies are made just like it, or as mere 
theorists, to tell us how they themselves could, if they 
chose it, put such a globe as this earth together ; but, 
seeing that it has been put together somehow or 
other, their object is to take it all to pieces, or as 
much of it at least as they can get at, in order to 
decide not only what may have happened to it, in 
time past, but what is likely to become of it, if it con- 
tinue to proceed exactly as it does now, for ages to 
come, if not for ever ; of which some appear to have 
very little doubt. 

Geology is of late become so fashionable, that I 
ought not, perhaps, to suppose any of my readers to 
be so ignorant, as to need to be supplied with the 
outlines of Dr. Hutton's " Theory of the Earth." 
I shall however copy what Mr. Lyell says of it: — 
"The ruins of an older world," said Hutton, "are 
visible in the present structure of our planet; and the 
strata which now compose our continents have been 
once beneath the sea, and were formed out of the 
waste of pre-existent continents. The same forces 
are still destroying, by chemical decomposition, or 
mechanical violence, even the hardest rocks, and 
transporting the materials to the sea, where they are 
spread out, and form strata analogous to those of more 
ancient date. Although loosely deposited along the 
bottom of the ocean, they become afterwards altered 
and consolidated by volcanic heat, and then heaved 
up, fractured, and contorted." " He imagined, in 
short, that the continents were first gradually de- 
stroyed, and when their ruins had furnished materials 
for new continents, they were upheaved by violent 
and paroxysmal convulsions. He, therefore, required 



HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



87 



alternate periods of disturbance and repose, and such 
he believed had been, and would for ever be, the 
course of nature V 

I am old enough to remember Dr. Hutton, as well 
as his principal opponent (for so Mr. Lyell seems to 
think him), M. de Luc. I am old enough to be able 
to confirm what Mr. Lyell states of the bad opinion 
entertained at first of Dr. Hutton's theory, as, at the 
least, a revival of the heathen dogma of an 66 eternal 
succession 2 ," and a denying that this world ever had 
a beginning ; in justice, however, to Dr. Hutton, I 
am quite as willing as Mr. Lyell can be, to take my 
estimate of his principles, from his friend, biographer, 
and able expounder of his actual system, Professor 
Playfair, and to leave to him his defence and vindica- 
tion. Of M. de Luc, however, I have certainly more 
to say; not wishing to see the principles and re- 
searches of so good a man, in any way, unfairly de- 
preciated. Professor Playfair in particular has spoken 
almost disdainfully of his idea of the chaos being 
penetrated with light distinct from the solar beams ; 
but to show how. philosophers, geologists, and even 
professors may differ, Professor Ure, in his Treatise on 
Geology, has expressly declared, that he thinks Moses 
in nothing more correct, than in having described the 
creation of light, three days before that of the hea- 
venly bodies. One of the Greek fathers, Gregory 
Nazianzen, calls the light of the first day, acrwimrov 
tcai avr}\iov, as not then collected into a body, as we 

1 For more, see Lyell, i. 61, who does not quite agree about the pe- 
riods of repose. 

2 It is odd enough that this eternal succession, was what some of the 
ancients called a plurality of worlds. 



88 



COMMENDATIONS OF DE LUC. 



now see it in the sun. Professor Ure is upon many- 
points very adverse to the Huttonian theory. 

M. de Luc's works in general, will in all likelihood 
never be lost to the world ; he was by far too great a 
naturalist not to have his observations and discoveries 
duly appreciated, and indeed immortalised. Of one 
of his works, " Recherches sur les modifications de V At- 
mosphere" even Professor Playfair has very candidly 
said, " In that work, De Luc has succeeded where 
many men of genius have failed, and has made consi- 
derable improvements in a branch of the mathematics 
without borrowing almost any assistance from the 
principles of that science." Another testimony, not 
only to the abilities, but to the character of M. de 
Luc, I must hope to be allowed to transcribe, much 
of his merit being actually lost and obscured, by the 
almost sudden rise and appearance of existing geologists. 

Of M. de Luc's " Lettres Physiques et Morales " 
the Monthly Reviewer, for 1780, vol. lxii. thus 
writes — " This work bears all the marks of a saga- 
cious and experienced observer, a profound and ori- 
ginal thinker, a sound logician, and a good man. It 
is filled with materials relative to the natural world, 
and the branch of philosophy of which that world is 
more peculiarly the object ; and it exhibits rational, 
extensive, and noble views of the connection of na- 
ture with its Author, and with the moral and reli- 
gious system of the universe. M. de Luc, who has 
hitherto been only known as one of the first natural 
philosophers of our time, assumes here new aspects, 
still more interesting to humanity, namely, those of 
the moralist, the citizen, the friend, of man, who 
speaks the language of wisdom, to the peasant, the 
artist, the legislator, and the sovereign, and appre- 



RECOLLECTIONS, &C. 



89 



ciates with sensibility, truth, and precision, the ge- 
nuine sources of human felicity." 

But whatever praise may have been bestowed on 
his labours in general, if his geology in particular is 
become quite out of vogue amongst ourselves, as 
seems to be the case, I know it to be perfectly out of 
my power to render it otherwise. An opponent of 
Dr. Hutton, De Luc certainly was, but I do not 
think an unfair one. In some parts of Mr. Ly ell's books 
he appears to me to have been misrepresented ; but 
as to these matters, such mistakes are so ably pointed 
out in M. de la Fite's publication, as to render any 
thing I could say, quite unnecessary. My own indi- 
vidual opinion upon such subjects has long ceased to 
be of any moment ; but as it was the fashion not long 
ago to encourage the publication of recollections and re- 
miniscences^ I shall hope I may be allowed to revive a 
few circumstances connected with both the above 
naturalists and both the systems. I trust I may be 
able at the same time to explain the reasons, why it 
has appeared necessary, at certain seasons, to those 
who have the great truths of the Christian religion 
at heart, to watch the movements of geologists (or at 
least, of their admirers), and prevent to the utmost of 
their power any false conclusions being drawn, from 
the judgments they pass on terrestrial phenomena. 
The public in general will I trust discover, that if I 
am writing with some degree of "priestly" zeal, I 
have sufficient respect for my own character, as well 
as for the peculiar age in which we live, when as it 
has been said, " bigotry in vain raises its powerless 
hands against science" not to commit myself further 
than the exact state of the case may seem to require. 
If in what I am about to relate, I shall be obliged to 



90 



GEOLOGICAL LETTERS. 



mix myself up with the particular details of the nar- 
rative, the reader may depend upon it I shall do it 
neither willingly nor unwillingly ; not willingly, be- 
cause comparatively with the situation in which I 
stood, in the times alluded to, I have now very long 
lived in obscurity and seclusion ; and there is not a 
living geologist whose works are not very much more 
recent than my own publications to which I must 
refer; not unwillingly, because I am glad to be still 
living, to bear my testimony to the honesty at least, 
and pious zeal of Dr. Hutton's great opponent; who 
may otherwise, as I observe, run a risk of being ac- 
tually numbered among the continental geologists of 
the infidel school, though it is in my power distinctly 
to show, that continental infidelity was the very thing 
that induced him to become a geologist. 

I have already observed, that in the years 1793, 
1794, 1795, I translated the whole of "De Luc's 
Geological Letters to Professor Blumenbach," but as 
they were printed only in a periodical work, (the " Bri- 
tish Critic,") they were, of course, not carried through 
the press very rapidly, so that De Luc himself had 
ample time to revise my translations, and I at this 
moment possess his own acknowledgment of their 
general correctness. Subsequently he made altera- 
tions and additions as has been shown. 

It was not, I think, before the year 1802 that the 
" Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth," 
by Professor Play fair, were made public. In 1805, I 
preached my Bampton Lecture before the University 
of Oxford, and in my sixth discourse (the whole 
being directed against the delusions^ of the age of 
reason), I considered at some length, the testimonies 
which the face of the earth had been judged to exhibit, 

12 



PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



91 



to the truth of the Mosaic writings. At that time the 
contest between the Neptunists and Vulcanists, was, 
as Mr. Lyell has shown, extremely warm, and the 
neutral party of which Mr. Lyell speaks, as the 
founders of the Geological Society in London, had 
not yet appeared ; it was not before the year 1807 that 
that Society was formed. It so happens that in that 
very year De Luc addressed to me one of the last, 
and possibly one of the longest letters he ever wrote : 
it occupies eight large sheets of paper, and is written 
very closely ; not in French, as was commonly the 
case, but in English. It is now lying before me ; and 
as I do not know that any body ever saw it but 
myself, and its contents are very applicable to the 
subject of this treatise, more so indeed than I could 
wish them to be, I shall venture to introduce some 
extracts from it, and as much as possible in his own 
words ; the English of a foreigner ; entitled of 
course, to some allowances. It was intended as a 
sort of critique on my sixth Bampton Lecture, not 
altogether commendatory as will be seen. It is for 
De Luc's sake I notice it all — and to show that as a 
sound believer he had good grounds to be alarmed; a 
case I have lived to see rather rudely disputed. 

" In your valuable work, the Bampton Lecture, you 
have clearly shown, how unphilosophical, even frivo- 
lous, are the moral and metaphysical 1 arguments against 
revelation ; a subject which cannot be too often treated 

1 My Bampton Lecture, purporting to be a view of the evidences of 
Christianity at the close of the pretended age of reason, proposed to 
bring them to the test severally of history, criticism, ethics, 
physics, and metaphysics. The book is entirely out of print; its 
character, when first made public, may be seen in Archbishop Magee's 
celebrated work on atonement ; see his Index under the name of Nares 
(Rev. E.) — 3rd. edit. 1812. 



92 



ATTACK ON GENESIS. 



by those who like you, are equal to the task. But you 
are also aware, that this is not sufficient in our times, 



refute those authors, I resolved to come forward 
against them. This I executed in my work, 6 Let- 
tres sur VHistoire de la Terre et de V Homme, 9 which I 
began to write in 1775, and published in 1780. 

1 It is exceedingly clear from Mr. Lyell's first volume, p. 68, that he 
would be disposed to smile at such simplicity ; but for my own part, I still 
wish that divines would look a little more about them, not geologically, 
that cannot be — it is laymen only who are clear of the penalties of 
non-residence — but theologically, and as regards the history of man : 
unless indeed they do learn to look about them, it would appear from 
Mr. Fairholme's recent work, that they may involuntarily do great 
harm. I find in his introductory chapter the following passage: — 
" Geologists without any knowledge of the original text (of Scripture), 
and learned men without any knowledge of geology, have, uninten- 
tionally formed a species of coalition, the effects of which strike deep 
into the very root of our confidence in Scripture, and sap the foundation 
on which our belief in the omnipotence and omniscience of an Almighty 
Creator ought to be founded ;" for my own part, I am persuaded that 
geologists themselves, are often unaware of the evil tendency of their 
own expressions. Who would think that the author of the following 
sentence, could entertain proper ideas of God, and (as he calls them) 
" the sacred writings ?" After descanting largely upon the appeal we 
may now make to "the organic world," he observes, "the book of 
nature is intelligibly written, if we can comprehend her language, and 
far better authority than the testimony of man, as to the works of HER 
creation." — Fraser's Magazine, Oct. 1832, p. 280. 




RATIONAL RELIGION. 



93 



" From my connections with Germany as early as 
1776, I kept the thread of the progress of a sect, 
which, by openly converting the Mosaic account of 
the world into a mythology, had by degrees effaced all 
positive religion from the minds of the people of every 
rank. 

" The corruption, especially in the protestant part 
of Germany, was at the fountain head. It proceeded 
from the professors of the universities and the clergy, 
who publicly taught, in their lessons and writings, 
and even in the pulpit, that history was no part of re- 
ligion ; this being intellectual, the other rested on tra- 
ditions of old times in which there was no certainty. 
That man as a rational being had his religion in him- 
self *, which every individual could find with sufficient 

1 This idea of " man as a rational being, having his religion in him- 
self," is so absurd, that it seems to me impossible that any truly rational 
being could for a moment entertain it I have shown in a former part 
of this work, what a mystery man is to himself, according to the views 
of Pascal and Young, two persons not to be overlooked in such a case. 
The religion man is capable of finding in himself (if such an uncertainty 
can be called religion), explains nothing concerning the designs of God, 
as to what has already taken place, or what may be to come ; and as for 
any satisfaction such a rational religion may convey to a doubting mind, 
I should as soon think of speaking of a rational omnipotence, a rational 
creation, a rational mortality, or a rational resurrection from the dead. 
It is certainly something singular, that while I was exposing here almost 
thirty years ago the fallacies of the boasted age of reason, De Luc 
should have been attacking the rationalists abroad ; still more, that as 
he had to combat the illusion of a progres des lumieres, I should now be 
writing under some jealousy of a march of intellect, a march lately de- 
scribed by a learned person, at least as jealous of it as myself, to be, a 
" march of youth against age, of inexperience against experience, of 
children against parents, and servants against masters; of cunning 
against simplicity and honesty, of folly against wisdom, of the idle 
against the industrious, of consumers against producers, and of money 
against land. It is the advancement of all the vices that have ever 
characterised human nature, and the retrogradation of the virtues ; in 



94 



BASIS OF MORAL LAWS. 



attention, or learn from those who have made man 
and mankind their particular study. 

"In their lectures on moral philosophy, no other 
foundation of moral laws was presented, but the order 
of things and fitness, and in those of jurisprudence, the 
nature of man as an independent and active being, and 
human laws, were their only principles." 

M. de Luc proceeds next to give a long account 
of certain transactions at Berlin, whither he went 
on purpose, as he says, to combat infidelity, at 
" the head quarters of the revolutionary sect," of 
which he had been writing. The time would seem to 
be now so far past, as to render it useless to copy 
what he says upon this particular subject; but circum- 
stances have very lately occurred to render it other- 
wise, especially as he had for some time free access to 
the King of Prussia \ who " with pleasure," as he 
writes, gave him permission, not only to confer with 
him upon the alarming state of things, but to dedicate 
to him some of his publications; all of which he was so 
kind as to send to me at the time, and which I care- 
fully preserve. 

" When I arrived in that city (Berlin), two schemes 
were jointly carried on with appearance of success; 
you are informed of one of them, at least you speak 
in your Lectures of the work that I published on 
that occasion, but you did not know the event." 

short, it is the march of moral and practical ignorance, cant, and super- 
stition, opposed to every thing that has hitherto been deemed valuable 
to man." What follows is surely libellous, if any prosecutor could be 
found — " Never was the English nation half so ignorant of all really 
useful knowledge as it is at the present moment ; never was it so com- 
pletely the dupe of every political, moral, or rejigious impostor, who 
starts up to betray, as it is now." Surely there is some slander here. 

1 Our own revered sovereign George III. had conferred on him a 
professorship in his dominions abroad, as a sanction to his proceedings. 



PRUSSIAN JEWS. 



95 



I am sorry to say, the scheme I had alluded to in 
my lecture, was a very disgraceful communication 
between certain Jews of Prussia, and the head of the 
clergy, as well as inspector of the Theological press 
there, (or to apply the titles given him in M. De Luc's 
Lettre aux Juifs, Conseiller du Consistoire superieur et 
Prevot a Berlin,) in the course of which the former 
offered to abandon their religion and profess Christ- 
ianity, if both might be reduced to a rational system of 
pure Deism 1 ; but as it was judged necessary by the 
Christians, that they should receive the initiatory rite 
of baptism, the form of the latter, to accommodate 
them, was to be altered, and they were to be allowed 
to be baptised only in the " name of Jesus Christ, as a 
Doctor [Teacher] of morals far superior to those which 
they had followed" 

The other scheme was, to " suppress the religious 
education in schools, under a pretence that children 
could not understand it." That I may make no mistake 
in this, I shall copy the account actually sent to me 
in a memorial from Berlin, in 1793. " II ne faut 
point (disoit-on) parler de Dieu ni de la Religion aux 
Enfans, car il n'y sauroient rien comprendre. L'En- 
fance est le temps de la memoire et de F habitude ; il 
faut employer la premiere aux elemens arides mais 
siirs des arts et des sciences qu'ils devront suivre ; et 

1 In a letter of a much earlier date, his account of these things is 
thus stated: " Ces Juifs sont venus declarer ouvertement qu'ils renon- 
coient l'Ancien Testament, n'en retenant que le Theisme ; et laissant 
entendre qu'ils voyoient la mtme disposition chez un grand nombre de 
Chretiens quant au nouveau Testament, ils proposent de se reunir sous 
le Theisme. 1 ' 

" La Reponse de l'Ecclesiastique a paru ; c'est le principal Eccle- 
siastique de Berlin, et il vend le Christianisme aux Juifs, comme Judas 
leur vendit son Chef." 



96 



DE LUC's ADDRESS TO THEM. 



former la derniere a remplir les devoirs dont on leur 
fera sentir la necessite : reservant les lecons de la 
Religion, pour les temps ou leur entendement pourra 
les saisir et y acquiescer." 

I wish it were in my power to copy many passages 
from De Luc's admirable Letter to the Apostate Jews 
upon the subject of a positive revealed law, instead of 
those " liens de toile d'araignee, formes des conceptions 
humaines" on which they were disposed to rely. The 
letter is lying before me, but the passages I should be 
disposed to transcribe from it, too many for such a 
work as the present — one however I cannot bring 
myself to pass over. " Vous respectez Moyse, me 
direz-vous ; je le crois, et j'irai plus loin encore : vous 
avez appris de quelques ecrivains Chretiens, meme 
d'ecclesiastiques, a accompagner ce respect comme ils 
le font en parlant de Jesus Christ, des expressions 
pompeuses de veneration, meme aV adoration ; quoiqu' 
au fond vous ne consideriez Moyse, ni eux Jesus 
Christ, que comme des hommes de genie et de talens, 
qui aujourd'hui peuvent etre surpasses par d'autres, 
vu le progres des lumieres." 

How far such projects as those alluded to, have ever 
been entertained amongst ourselves, I shall not stop to 
say ; but for my own part, should like to be informed 
what elementary treatises children ever do understand, 
though they all terminate in certain knowledge ? Are 
the existence of God, and the distinction of good and 
evil, less sure, as principles, than the rudiments of arts 
and sciences : without some preoccupation of mind and 
memory, may not the judgment become as open to 
false as to true and just impressions ? at a riper age 
may not the heart be expected to interfere with the 
decisions of the head? Can children be said to 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 97 

understand grammar when they learn by rote the first 
lessons of classical instruction ? Can they be said to 
understand the whole system of computation and num- 
bers, algebra, geometry, &c. while they are learning 
their multiplication table, and the first rules of vulgar 
arithmetic at school? If indeed there were many 
different roads to the attainment of classical know- 
ledge, or of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, &c, I 
would admit that there might be hazard of confusion, 
but not owing to any want of understanding in the 
children, but to the want of unanimity amongst the 
teachers. This is the real stumbling-block, and an 
established religion for the behoof of the population at 
large the most obvious remedy. I do not mean that 
we are to look for an infallible judge upon earth, to 
stifle all controversies by his mere dictum, or by rigid 
punishment of the most conscientious differences ; but 
that a public standard should be always extant, to 
which the ignorant may resort ; a standard founded on 
a truly honest and sincere interpretation of the word of 
God, by persons selected for their wisdom and learn- 
ing, and particular competency. The consequence of 
waiting for the acquiescence of every man's private judg- 
ment, may clearly be seen, in communities, exempt 
from the infallible authority and assumed power of the 
Roman Pontiff. It will be said, confusion is better than 
tyranny. It may be so ; but if confusion be the only 
alternative of the want of an establishment, what can 
be said against an establishment which is not tyran- 
nical, which only professes to have done its best to 
provide for the instruction of the people at large, but 
not on any such principle of a delegated infallibility, 
as should give a right to coerce the conscience, or 

F 



98 



m. cousin's "rapport," &c. 



force its 'proffered help and instruction, on those who 
should appear resolved to turn away from it ? 

But to return from what is not at this time so 
unreasonable a digression as might be supposed. As 
far as the two schemes I have mentioned were con- 
cerned, M. De Luc appears from his letter, to have so 
far succeeded in opening the king's eyes to the mis- 
chievous consequences that might ensue, as to procure 
them to be abandoned : and as the same monarch is 
still reigning over the kingdom of Prussia, it is cer- 
tainly remarkable that we should so lately have learned 
from the report of M. Victor Cousin 1 to the French 
government, that under a law of 1819, religion is at 
this time made the very basis of Prussian education, 
being a leading article of instruction in their lowest or 
primary schools for children. [See his Rapport sur 
L'Etat de L'Instruction publique dans quelques Pays 
de l'Allemagne et particulierement en Prusse. Paris, 
1833.] Many of his statements upon this head are 
very interesting. In his first letter to M. Le Comte 
de Montalivet, (Ministre de l'instruction publique et 
des cultes,) he appears to regard it as a settled prin- 
ciple, that religion should be made the basis of public 
instruction. " Les Saintes Ecritures, avec l'histoire 
biblique qui les explique, et le catechisme qui les 
resume, doivent faire la bibliotheque de Yenfance, et 
des ecoles primaires" And in the second section of 
his account of the public instruction established in 
Prussia, particularly of the ecole primaire, I find the 
following passage. 

" La prin cipale mission de toute ecole, dit la loi de 



i Cousin, 191, 192. 



PRUSSIAN SCHOOLS. 



99 



1819, est d'elever la jeunesse de maniere a faire naitre 
en elle, avec la connoissance des rapports de 1'homme 
avec Dieu, la force et le desir de regler sa vie selon 
l'esprit et les principes du Christianisme. De bonne 
heure l'ecole formera les enfans a la piete, et pour 
cela elle cherchera a seconder et a completer les 
premieres instructions de la famille. Ainsi partout les 
travaux de la journee commenceront et finiront par 
une courte priere et de pieuses reflexions, que le 
maitre saura menager de telle sorte que cet exercice 
moral ne degenere jamais en une affaire d'habitude. 
Les maitres veilleront en outre a ce que les enfans 
assistent exactement au service de l'eglise les dimanches 
et fetes." 

As a surviving friend of De Luo, I feel sure that a 
good natured public will forgive my feeling interested 
in such a statement as the above, when not only his 
system of geology, but his religious principles, have 
been called in question ; it is in truth, not at all im- 
probable, but that he may have been the cause of 
checking the course of infidelity, at a most seasonable 
moment in the countries M. Cousin visited. I shall 
add the following account of the very first " objets 
d'enseignement," that appear in the " Plan fonda- 
mental des etudes a l'ecole normale primaire de Pots- 
dam." 

Hiver. Lecons. Et£. 



1. Religion. 



Introduction a la Bible et 
a l'histoire biblique. An- 
cien Testament. Lec- 
ture et explication de la 
Bible. 



Nouveau Testament. Lec- 
ture et explication de la 
Bible. Apercu de l'histoire 
Ecclesiastique et de la re- 
ligion Chretienne. 



Speaking of the provincial and village schools, 
M. Cousin writes, " L'objet principal et le fond de 
toute instruction est la religion, d'apres l'histoire et la 

f 2 



100 MISREPRESENTATIONS OF GENESIS. 



Bible. Les livres principaux sent la Bible, le Psautier, 
le catechisme." 



nothing to do with religion, and was in fact no part of it. 
" The strength of the aggressors," he writes, " con- 



relied for their support on the pretended results of 

1 I may, perhaps, be indulged with one more recollection. I per- 
fectly remember, that on descending from the University pulpit, after 
the delivery of my third Bampton Lecture, in which I had noticed the 
memorial of the Prussian Jews, I was met by my friend Dr. Ford, 
Principal of Magdalen Hall, the Lord Almoner's Reader in Arabic, and 
a consummate Orientalist. He asked me to accompany him home, that 
he might show me many letters he had received upon the subject, im- 
mediately from Prussia. I did so, and was shown some in German, 
some in Latin, and some in French. He allowed me to take extracts 
from them ; but as more than twenty-eight years have passed over my 
head since, it will not be wondei-ed, that I now know not where to look 
for them. I can only bear my testimony to the concern and surprise 
expressed by the Professor, at the folly of such proceedings. And that 
he was aware as well as M. De Luc and myself, that there were persons 
at that time in existence, and in prominent situations, quite capable, " by 
arguments drawn from Physics, of invalidating Scripture truths," con- 
trary to Mr. Lyell's supposition, (Vol. i. 6'8.) who has shown himself, in 
the place referred to, too much inclined to sneer at those weak persons, 
who could " take such things for granted," on De Luc's authority !— ~ 
And yet upon this authority, I am able to relate the following fact. 
Being in company with several wavering and incredulous Jews, among 
whom De Luc was arguing in defence of revelation, one happened to 
enter of more steady faith and principles than the-rest of the company, 
when the following greeting took place, — " Venez, Rabin ! venez ! voici 
un Naturaliste qui vous fera bien plaisir ; il veut prouver que Moise 
etoit un Envoy e de Dieu." 





LA NOUVELLE EXEGESE. 



101 



the study of the earth. Thus the Jews who had ad- 
dressed Dr. T. gave as a motive to abandon the Mosaic 
history, " that the description of the world in Genesis 
was so different from what the study of nature had 
shown, that no men of knowledge could continue to 
believe the inspiration of that book." 

It seems the mythological interpretation of the book 
of Genesis was called, " la nouvelle exegese," being a 
new mode of explaining the Bible, so as to efface all 
ideas of the direct inspiration of the authors. " It is 
the same system," says M. de Luc, " that Dr. Geddes, 
evidently connected with that sect, had attempted to 
introduce into England by means of his translation 
of the Bible. An undertaking, however, which the 
good spirit of the English nation disconcerted." 1 

"It is a great illusion to fancy, that the religion of 
Christ is independent of an inquiry into the character 
of Genesis. Christianity takes its origin in the fall of 
man, and the promise of a Redeemer. If Genesis, 
therefore, can be shown to be a fable, those who 
attack it know but too well that Christianity will fall 
with it. The origin of the indifference shown to the 
latter in most of the states of Germany is, to my cer- 
tain knowledge, the attack upon Genesis through 
Geology !" 

I do not choose to omit the following passage, as it 
may serve to show, that in the little judgment I 

1 The credit here given to the English nation, however just, in 1807, 
appears to have been but slowly acquired. I have among my papers, a 
letter, dated July 8th, 1794, in which he expresses his concern, that 
the first vol, of Dr. Geddes' Bible should have been allowed to circulate 
for two years (" faire chemin," is his expression) without notice on the 
part of our divines. But he takes courage from an article just then be- 
gun in the British Critic, and which I have reason to know, was in a 
great measure from the pen of Bishop Horsley. 

F 3 



102 



HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



had to exercise upon such a subject, I took leave to 
differ from my worthy correspondent on some points, 
since then become of considerable importance. 

" It appears that Mr. Play fair's Illustrations of the 
Huttonian TJieory of the Earth have made such an 
impression on you, that they have created more than 
doubt in your mind on some essential points of the 
system exposed in my Letters to Professor Blumen- 
bach, which you have translated." 

Then follow, of course, many remarks upon the 
Huttonian System, which however ingenious, it would 
be unseasonable at present to repeat l . It might look 
as if I had at that time fancied myself to be as com- 
petent a judge, and as proper a referee on such points, 
as the partiality and good opinion of the worthy writer, 
induced him to think. To say the truth, highly as I 
estimated his zeal in the cause, I had shown in other 
parts of my Lecture, that not all the geologists in the 
world would shake my faith in the book of Genesis, 
as a real history of our species, and certainly no 
mythos ; besides there were some points, as shall 
be shown hereafter, in which I did, as far as my 

1 Having been for many years much out of the way of literary society, 
I know not how the following difficulty was ever got over — I see in 
Playfair, and even in Bakewell, and Herschel, that Sir James Hall's 
experiments as to the principle of pressure, to modify the effects of heat, 
in confining the volatile parts of bodies, were applied by Hutton, to 
substances heated at the bottom of the sea, and under the resistance of a 
column of water, of 1500 feet, or more. — M. De Luc in his Letter, fore- 
tels a failure in this part of the Huttonian theory, " When it comes to 
be considered, that the pressure exercised at the bottom of the ocean, is 
not that of a solid, as in Sir James Hall's experiments, but of a liquid, 
which all the permanent expansible fluids penetrate as soon as formed;" 
and he appeals to navigators for the effect of the decomposition of vege- 
tables and animals, under water, by the rising of bubbles of air to the 
surface. 



playfair's illustrations. 



103 



judgment could carry me, most cordially agree with 
my venerable friend ; and am disposed to do so still. 
One sentence I cannot bring myself to pass over, as 
it is characteristic of the indefatigable zeal of this 
aged philosopher. Being desirous of refuting some 
facts on which he thought Playfair had placed too 
great reliance, he writes : — 

" With that view, though in my 80th year, and 
coming out of a severe illness, having pleased God to 
restore sufficiently my health, I set out last year, at 
the end of June, for new observations 1 . — Since then, 
I am much altered, and my bodily strength is almost 
entirely gone." His mind however continued at 
work, since it was employed at the time of writing 
his letter to me, in confirming by experiments, certain 
facts, insisted upon in two of his works, published in 
France from Berlin, under the titles of " Introduction a 
la Physique Terrestre par les Fluides Expansibles," and 
" Traite Elementaire sur le Fluide Electrico-galvanique" 

The remainder of his letter, which occupies thirty- 
one very closely written pages, and is very methodi- 
cally divided into as many as five and forty sections, 
is devoted to the correction of some opinions which he 
thought I had too hastily imbibed from the perusal of 
Playfair's Illustrations 2 , but any reference to such 

1 Upon this occasion, I know that the houses of all the gentry in the 
countries he passed through, were open to him, and many lovers of 
science accompanied him during his researches. 

2 It was not the perusal of Playfair's Illustrations only, that had led 
me to entertain more enlarged ideas of the operations of fire, at the 
time of my preaching my Bampton Lecture ; I had acquaintance with 
many persons inclined to the Plutonian system, or system of the Vul- 
canists, and I wished to do justice, at least, to both, or afford scope for 
the blending of the two systems, as appeared to me most reasonable. 

F 4 



104 



PLAYFAIR, &C 



opinions, at present, whether right or wrong, is quite 
unnecessary. I shall have occasion to make some 
allusion to them elsewhere, when I hope to do M. De 
Luc so much justice as to show, that some of the most 
eminent naturalists and geologists of the day, have 
either adopted his conclusions, or been conducted to 
the same, by their own researches. 

Having for a great number of years been engaged 
in studies, business, and pursuits, wholly incompatible 
with the roving life of a practical geologist, 1 hope it 
will not be thought that I have wilfully, or ungrate- 
fully turned away from a branch of knowledge, in 
which he thought I might obtain a greater proficiency 

Among the persons alluded to, I hope I shall be excused mentioning 
my maternal uncle, Mr. Strange, F.R.S., (only son of Sir John Strange, 
Master of the Rolls,) his Majesty's resident Minister at Venice, for 
many years. In the fourteenth note to Playfair's Illustrations, Mr. 
Strange has the credit given him, of being the first to discriminate the 
different effects of fire, in the production of rocks, acting in various situa- 
tions, and under different circumstances. Mr. Strange's account of 
two Giants' Causeways in the Venetian state, descriptive of these things, 
is to be found in the 65th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, of 
which I have a copy in my possession, corrected and much enlarged by 
himself. In Stock's Life of Dr. Beddoes, this paper is also particularly 
noticed. Mr. Strange was a member of almost all the Philosophical 
Societies abroad, and a great collector. He died in the year 1798, leav- 
ing (besides a great collection of minerals, coins, pictures, &c.} a library 
of upwards of 80,000 volumes ; the catalogue of which, in two volumes, 
under the title of Bibliotheca Strangeiana, and which, as one of his 
executors, I caused to be "made with great care, is still well known to 
the curious in books. Having had occasion to speak in another place 
of the heedless manner in which some geologists form their conclusions, 
I cannot forbear adding the following passage from Playfair, in com- 
mendation of the contrary proceedings on the part of my respected rela- 
tive. — " Mr. Strange's paper affords a specimen of what is, perhaps, 
rare in any of the sciences, and certainly most rare of all in geology, 
viz. a philosophic induction carried just as far as the facts will bear him 
out, and not a single stage beyond that point." Illustrations, p. 265, 



BAMPTON LECTURE 1805 



105 



than lias turned out to be the case, if I copy the last 
sentences of this very curious Letter. 

cs I have now accomplished what I had long in mind 
to execute for you — after which you will not doubt of 
my sincere and affectionate regard. I am now old 
and infirm : I have prepared the arms, but shall not 
be long able to fight with them. It would be there- 
fore a great consolation for me, before I leave this 
world, to see you remain in the field with those neio 
arms. — 

" Yours ever, Dear Sir, 

" De Luc." 

Perhaps, I should not have neglected those new 
arms, as he calls them, so much as I have done, if. I 
had not entertained a much greater confidence, as has 
been before observed, in the old, tried, and highly 
tempered arms of pure theology, and uncontradicted 
Bible History. 

Not that I could ever be indifferent to any geolo- 
gical testimonials in support of what it has been usual 
to call the Mosaic Cosmogony, but I have always felt 
that I could do without them, in which some living- 
observers of great name appear to have agreed with 
me. I hope 1 may be allowed to copy a few passages 
to this effect from my Bampton Lecture, Sermon VJ. 
premising only, that in the same Sermon I had pre- 
viously shown, how consistently with the attributes of 
God, the beginning of things here might have been as 
Moses describes. The following passage was then 
introduced as a caution »by anticipation, as it would 
now seem, against any supposed geological appearances 
to the contrary, by which unphilosophical persons 
are, to my certain knowledge, constantly liable to be 

f 5 



106 



EXTRACTS, &C. 



misled, and much more generally so, than geologists 
themselves seem willing to grant. 

" That the fabric of this globe bespeaks an origin 
much anterior to the era assigned by Moses, depends 
on speculations, which however cautiously conducted, 
may never be allowed to disprove a fact capable of 
almost positive demonstration. That the chief use of 
this globe of earth is to be the abode of man cannot be 
doubted; the great and most material fact, there- 
fore, to be decided, is, when did man first stand in 
need of this abode? It matters nothing to us what 
the world was previously ; without such an inhabitant 
as man, it could be no more to us than what the wild 
and desolate and unfrequented parts of the earth are 
at this day : of which as it concerns no man to take 
notice, so need we not be solicitous as to such a state 
of the globe we dwell on. Surely our reason may be 
brought to assent to these three propositions ; that in 
the beginning God created the mass of which it con- 
sists ; that it was, previously to the introduction of 
our great progenitor, { without form and void,' whe- 
ther in its first original state, or as some writers have 
supposed, by the "dissolution of a former state ; and 
that it was reduced to the order in which we now see 
it, for the especial purposes of our race, by the imme- 
diate decree of God's providence. In precisely what 
manner the strata became so arranged as we see them ; 
what time was necessary for the formation of such 
depositions from a watery fluid or such concretions 
from an igneous one, as we now behold, it may be 
amusing to calculate : but it can be of no use or cer- 
tainty : of no certainty, for the reasons already stated ; 
of no use, because should the mere matter of this globe 
even be proved to have subsisted for ages and ages 



EXTRACTS, &C. 



107 



before the creation of Adam, and to have undergone 
numberless revolutions, I know not that it could be of 
any concern to our race. We date our title to the 
possession of it, and dominion over it from Adam ; 
and have no need to ascend higher. I say from 
Adam, not only because we are told so in the first 
chapters of Genesis, but because our Saviour and St. 
Paul have also insisted upon it." 

Such were my sentiments upon these points, 
preached, printed and published eight and twenty 
years ago. Some years indeed before the appearance 
of my Bampton Lecture, I had said as much in my 
book on the Plurality of Worlds, where I find this pas- 
sage : — " With the creation of the material substance 
of the earth, we have really no concern ; except to 
refer it, as all theists must do, to an intelligent First 
Cause. The beginning of the human race, and the 
history of our progenitors, including particularly the 
origin of evil, and the knowledge they had of the 
Creator and his laws, are all with which we have to 
do. If the substance of the earth were, for ages pre- 
vious to its present form, a chaotic mass, as some 
think : or immersed in the body of the sun, as others 
have supposed; or wandering as a comet; or scintil- 
lating as a fixed star ; or even, according to another 
conceit, if it were, long before the existence of man- 
kind, inhabited by angels; in all these cases it could 
not be at all related to us ; — till our own species had 
possession of it, as we see at this day, it was no more 
to us than at present any one of the invisible satel- 
lites of the most remote orb above. v — EIS 9E0S, 
EIS ME2ITH2, pp. 113, 114. Such, I say, were 
my sentiments very long ago ; long indeed before 
comparative anatomy had stepped in to give us the 

f 6 



108 



FORMER STATES OF THE GLOBE. 



information of which so much has been made ; nor 
have my opinions varied since, nor are they likely to 
do so, unless the geologists of the day, those at least 
most in vogue, can tell us more (that is more of abso- 
lute certainty) than they do at present of the condi- 
tion of this planet, before the introduction of the 
human species. What can it be to us in any reli- 
gious, moral, or metaphysical point of view, to know, 
that the planet was for a long time, to all appearance, 
in the possession of nothing better than a race of 
marine animals ; that at another time it was in the 
possession of a parcel of amphibious monsters, Icthyo- 
saurs, Plesiosaurs, and the rest of the Saurian tribe ; 
to say nothing of the Pterodactyls, Anoplotheriums, 
Palseotheriums, &c, &c, &c. Of what use is it to us 
to be told that we are living upon a decaying earth, 
hourly descending into the bosom of the great deep, 
there to form new earths and new continents ; with 
this great difference, indeed, that whereas we have 
inherited from those who went before us so little 
assistance, as to have been obliged to invent all the 
arts and sciences, with which we are acquainted, we 
are, by losses at sea and river drainage, continually 
conveying to the world preparing for those who are to 
come after us, a vast abundance of imperishable things, 
ready manufactured, according to the nicest principles 
of those very arts we have had the trouble of invent- 
ing-. Of such contributions to the behoof of the inha- 
bitants of the next set of continents, we have, in 
fact, almost a regular catalogue, prepared by no less a 
person than Mr. Lyell, in his very entertaining Lec- 
tures at the King's College. 

" When we reflect," says he, " on the number of 
curious monuments consigned to the bed of the ocean 



EXTRACTS. 



109 



in the course of every naval war from the earliest 
times, our conceptions are greatly raised respecting 
the multitudes of lasting memorials which man is 
leaving of his labours. During our last great struggle 
with France, thirty- two of our ships of the line went 
to the bottom in the space of twenty-two years, be- 
sides seven fifty guns ships, eighty-six frigates, and a 
multitude of smaller vessels. The navies of the other 
European powers, France, Holland, Spain, and Den- 
mark, were almost annihilated during the same period, 
so that the aggregate of their losses must have many 
times exceeded that of Great Britain. In every one 
of these ships were batteries of cannon constructed of 
iron and brass, whereof a great number had the dates 
and places of their manufacture inscribed upon them in 
letters cast in metal; in each there were coins of 
copper, silver, and often many of gold, capable of 
serving as valuable historical monuments ; in each were 
an infinite variety of instruments of the arts of war 
and peace, many formed of materials such as glass 
and earthenware, capable of lasting for indefinite ages, 
when once removed from the mechanical action of 
the waves, and buried under a mass of matter which 
may exclude the corroding action of the sea-water. 

" But the reader must not imagine that the fury of 
war is more conducive than the peaceful spirit of com- 
mercial enterprise to the accumulation of wrecked 
vessels in the bed of the sea. From an examination 
of Lloyd's Lists, from the year 1793 to the com- 
mencement of 1829, it has appeared that the number 
of British vessels alone, lost during that period 
amounted, on an average, to no less than one and 
a half daily. Out of five hundred and fifty-one ships 
of the royal navy lost to the country during the period 



110 



BED OF THE OCEAN. 



above-mentioned, only one hundred and sixty were 
taken or destroyed by the enemy, the rest having 
either stranded or foundered, or having been burned 
accidentally. Millions of dollars and other coins have 
been sometimes submerged in a single ship, and on 
these, when they happen to be enveloped in a matrix 
capable of protecting them from chemical changes, 
much information of historical interest will remain in- 
scribed, and endure for periods as indefinite as have the 
delicate markings of zoophytes or lapidified plants in 
some of the ancient secondary rocks. In almost every 
large ship, moreover, there are some precious stones 
set in seals, and often articles of use and ornament, 
composed of the hardest substances in nature, on which 
letters and various images are carved — engravings 
which they may retain when they are included in 
subaqueous strata, as long as a crystal preserves its 
natural form. It is probable that a greater number 
of monuments of the skill and industry of man, will in 
the course of ages be collected together, in the bed of 
the ocean, than will be seen at one time on the sur- 
face of the continents." 

Now, the bed of the ocea'n which is actually re- 
ceiving all these things every day, nay every hour 
that passes, is we are told but the foundation of ano- 
ther habitable set of continents, navigable seas and 
rivers, &c. in a course of preparation, to succeed those 
on which we are at present carrying on our several 
businesses and occupations. How they are actually 
to change places at last, I cannot pretend to say; but 
have heard of an act of Parliament for the building 
of a new gaol not far from the place where I am 
writing, in which it was enacted, that the materials of 
the old gaol should be made use of in the construction 



REMARKS, &C. 



Ill 



of the new gaol as far as ever they would go, and, 
that the prisoners already in custody, or to be com- 
mitted afterwards, should be confined in the old gaol 
till the new one was quite completed. There seems to 
be some similarity in the two cases ; I use the term 
seems because I know that Dr. Hutton thought he 
had explained this ; but when I copy his words, I 
question whether they will be judged to be so satis- 
factory as one might wish. 

" When this former land of the globe had been 
complete, so as to begin to waste and be impaired by 
the incroachment of the sea, the present land began 
to appear above the surface of the ocean. In this 
manner ice suppose a due proportion to be always pre- 
served of land and water upon the globe, for the pur- 
pose of a habitable world such as we possess, we thus 
allow time and opportunity for the translation of ani- 
mals and plants to occupy the earth." This is cer- 
tainly better than the act of Parliament, but not 
much, and evidently only a theoretical contrivance. 
I conclude that Mr. Lyell thinks that all the drowned 
things he mentions as imperishable, are one time or 
other to come up to the surface again; but, instead of 
any persons being able to acquire from thence any 
valuable historical information, I must say, not im- 
pertinently I hope, that I much doubt it ; for as the 
present continents crumble to pieces, and many of 
the things they contain, are to a certainty exceed- 
ingly perishable, it will be difficult surely to connect 
the imperishable things then to be discovered in a 
fossil state, with the perishable things lost by the de- 
struction of preceding continents. What will our suc- 
cessors learn from the turning up of " millions of 
dollars," with the effigies of one or more kings of 



112 



SUCCESSION OF CONTINENTS. 



Spain upon them, when it must be supposed that be- 
fore they will be discoverable, not only Spain will be 
gone, but all the histories of Spain ; for it is not 
usual to write whole histories, upon adamant or rock 
crystal. 

Much the same may be said surely of the " bat- 
teries of cannon, of iron, or brass, whereof a great 
number" may have "the dates and places of their 
manufacture inscribed upon them in letters cast in 
metal." But what is this to the purpose ? The places 
will be gone, and how to rectify or compare the dates 
of a lost world, I should be puzzled to say. If a very 
great abundance of the things in the moon should sud- 
denly, or even gradually, come down upon this earth, 
though they should have many notes of dates and 
places upon them, surely they need bring some lunatic 
with them, to explain such things to us, who never 
lived in the moon. 

But, after all, let our contributions to the continents 
now forming, or supposed to be forming at the bottom 
of the ocean be as many as they may, I do not see 
that they are to be a provision for more than one set 
of continents ; and yet in the course of " countless un- 
fathomable ages," what a succession of such conti- 
nents may there not have been, and passed away? 
and it seems to have been very oddly reserved for us 
Adamites to begin quite a new course of things. I 
have heard, indeed, and read of pre-Adamites — and 
why not, if the earth be now only passing through 
one of those changes to which it has been subject for 
millions and millions of years, or for an " infinity of 
time;" the only wonder is, that not one pre- Adamite, 
should have had any imperishable things to leave be- 
hind him, if it had been merely to prevent our be- 



HUMAN REMAINS. 



113 



coming so conceited as to fancy ourselves to be the 
first rational occupiers of this earthly globe. 

The Huttonian system, is a system of decay and 
renovation, but now we know there are some things 
not likely to decay during such transitions ; and others, 
which so far from requiring renovation^ will turn up 
fully manufactured ; and if the places had not perished 
and the manufacturers with them, capable of directing 
our successors where to have more made, if they 
should come to want them. 

It cannot be denied, that all the things which Mr. 
Lyell very justly represents to be continually carried, 
by different accidents, to the bottom of the sea, are 
according to the Huttonian system, to be expected to 
appear again, and probably to be sought after by the 
inhabitants of succeeding continents, as fossil reliqnice. 
Now, the fossil reliquice of the continents ice inhabit, 
are by this time pretty well known. But what a 
much more abundant harvest of curious reliquice, may 
our successors be in the way to reap than is the case 
with ourselves, who can not only not find any ready 
made articles, either of use or ornament, but not so 
much as the fossil bones of any manufacturer of such 
commodities. I will quote the editor of one of the 
Baron Cuvier's works to this effect — 

" We have now," says he, " to notice a fact con- 
nected with fossil osteology, of the most singular and 
striking kind. We find, as has been seen, quadrupeds 
of different genera, cetacea, birds, reptiles, fishes, 
insects, mollusca, and vegetables in a fossil state ; 
but to the present moment no human remains have 
been found, nor any traces of the works of man, in 
those particular formations, where these different 
organic fossils have been discovered." What is meant 



114 



ON THE SAME. 



by this assertion is, that no human bones have been 
found in the regular strata of the surface of the 
globe. In turf bogs, alluvial beds, and ancient 
burying grounds, they are disinterred as abundantly 
as the bones of other living species ; similar remains 
are found in the cliffs of rocks, and sometimes in 
caves where stalactite is accumulated upon them ; 
and the stage of decomposition in which they are 
found, and other circumstances, prove the comparative 
recentness of their deposition; but not a fragment 
of human bone has been found in such situations as 
can lead us to suppose that our species was con- 
temporary with the more ancient races. The Palseo- 
theria, Anoplotheria, or even with the elephants 
and rhinoceroses of comparatively a later date. 

" Many authors, indeed, have asserted that debris 
of the human species have been found among the 
fossils properly so called, but a careful examination 
of the facts, has proved that they were utterly 
mistaken V 

The same may be asserted of all articles of human 
fabrication ; nothing of that description has ever been 
found indicating the existence of the human race at 
an era antecedent to the last general catastrophe of 
the globe, in those countries where the strata have 
been examined, and the fossil discoveries we are 
treating of been made. Yet there is nothing in the 
composition of human bones, that should prevent their 
being preserved as well as others ; they are found in 
ancient fields of battle, equally well preserved with 
those of horses, whose bones, we know, are found 
abundantly in the fossil state. 

1 See the Discours Preliminaire to Cuvier's Ossemens Fossiles. 



CUVIER ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF GREECE. 115 

" The result then, of all of our investigations 
serves to prove, that the human race was not co-eval 
with the fossil genera and species, for no reason can 
be assigned why man should have escaped from the 
revolutions which destroyed those other beings, nor, 
if he did not escape, why his remains should not be 
found intermingled with theirs. 

" It is not meant however to say, that man did not 
exist at all in the eras alluded to, he might have 
inhabited a limited portion of the earth, and begun 
to extend his race over the rest of its surface, after 
the terrible convulsions that had devastated it were 
passed away. His ancient country, however, remains 
as yet undiscovered. It may, for aught we know, 
lie buried, and his bones along with it, under the 
existing ocean, and but a remnant of his race have 
escaped to continue the human population of the 
globe V 

I shall conclude this part of my work with a pas- 
sage from Cuvier himself, so consonant to what I 
have said elsewhere in support of the Mosaic history, 
as not reasonably to be passed over ; if as the geolo- 
gists of Cuvier's own school insist, such a countless 
succession of mundane revolutions have passed, how 
could Moses without preternatural assistance, have 
ventured to speak of the race of man, as compara- 
tively so recent an introduction ? He is supposed by 
his mythological interpreters, to have only collected 
his materials from ancient traditions, and something 
as extravagantly fabulous, as the legendary tales of 
our old monkish writers ; but the Baron Cuvier, 
writing of the Grecian antiquities, seems admirably 



Griffith's edition of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom. 

12 



116 



RECEIVED TRADITION. 



to have concluded that traditionary evidence, even 
amongst the pagans, could ascend only to a certain 
point, let the body of the earth, or the planet itself 
in short, be as old as it may. 

" Thus, not only should we not be surprised to 
find, even in ancient times, many doubts, and con- 
tradictions respecting the Epochs of Cecrops, Deu- 
calion, Cadmus, and Danaus ; and not only would it 
be childish to attach the smallest importance to any 
opinion whatever, regarding the precise dates of 
Inachus or Ogyges ; but if any thing ought to sur- 
prise us, it is this, that an infinitely more remote 
antiquity had not been assigned to those personages. 
It is impossible that there has not been in this case 
some effect of the influence of received tradition, from 
which the inventors of fables were not able to free 
themselves \" 

1 Theory of the Earth. The time of Inachtis has been variously re- 
presented to be about eighteen centuries before Christ, and that of 
Ogyges some years after. 



PART IV. 



The Baron Cuvier, in the section of his theory of 
the earth, which professes to give an account of pre- 
ceding systems of geology, observes that " during a 
long time, two events or epochs only, the creation and 
the deluge^ were admitted as comprehending the 
changes which have been operated upon the globe ; 
and all the efforts of geology were directed to ac- 
count for the present existing state of things, by 
imagining a certain original state, afterwards modified 
by the deluge, of which also, as to its causes, its 
operations, and its effects, each entertained his own 
theory." 

This is all exceedingly true ; nor would it be 
difficult to enumerate and classify the several investi- 
gations, to which the efforts of geology have sub- 
sequently been applied, in order to account for (if 
possible) the changes which "have been operated 
upon the globe." We know how much light has 
been supposed to have been thrown upon the subject 
of late years, by the Baron's own pursuit of the 
science of comparative anatomy; if light indeed, it 
may be called, for except as a fresh proof that the 
sea has changed its bed, I do not know that it has 
yet done much more than enable us to detect the 
existence, and destruction of many strange animals, 
in very strange places, and under very strange cir- 
cumstances, thereby rather affording room for an 



118 SCIENCES CONNECTED WITH GEOLOGY. 

increased variety of conjectures, than enabling us to 
draw any indisputable conclusions, beyond the facts 
themselves. The discoveries as far as they go, are 
unquestionably very curious, and very interesting, 
particularly to the skilful in comparative anatomy, 
enabled from a few detached fossil bones, to build up 
a complete animal which nobody living ever saw, 
and it is to be hoped never will; still certainly upon 
principles truly scientific. The general utility of 
such discoveries is not clear ; their importance how- 
ever, may not I suppose be questioned, after such 
a statement as follows. " The inquiries of the im- 
mortal Cuvier, into the remains of the organic creations 
of past successive ages have been of the greatest use to 
geology ; and the science is indebted to him for first 
drawing attention to this essential study. A train of 
physical events has been made out included in many 
myriads of ages, whence we have obtained a better 
notion of the antiquity of the earth than before, as 
well as of the immensity of time, beyond what figures are 
capable of affording, whereby we trace back events 
far beyond the periods of written history." If this 
be essential to geology, and geology essential to the 
happiness and well being of man, not only here, but 
hereafter, its importance must be great indeed. 

Other sciences besides comparative anatomy, have 
been at the same time in such a state of rapid advance- 
ment, that there is scarcely any saying what may not 
come, in time, to be new and important objects of geo- 
logical inquiry. To take Mr. Lyell's own enumeration 
of the sciences already connected with geology. The 
geologist, he tells us, should be well versed in che- 
mistry, natural philosophy, mineralogy, zoology, com- 
parative anatomy, botany ; in short in every science 



EXPLODED SYSTEMS. 



119 



relating to organic or inorganic nature. In such a 
work as the present, however, we can only revert to 
the two original events, and epochs, alluded to, the 
creation and deluge, as connected with the changes 
operated upon the globe. Moses is the only accre- 
dited historian of both events; and Moses certainly 
existed and wrote, long before any geological ex- 
amination of the earth had been attempted. 

I have always thought that it amounts to no small 
proof of the credibility of the Mosaic history of the 
creation, that the author writes with a prudence and 
caution very little to be expected of a cosmogonist of 
so remote a period. In fact he writes of the creation 
historically, and not philosophically ; his first four 
annunciations being simply, that "in the beginning 
God created the heavens and the earth ; that the 
earth was without form and void ; that darkness was 
upon the face of the deep ; and, that God said let 
there be light, and there was light." 

As historical facts, it is impossible that any person 
can contradict these assertions. They may be denied, 
but they cannot be contradicted ; but what ancient 
philosopher could now obtain credit for his philoso- 
phical mode of building up a world, by a fortuitous 
concourse or jumble of atoms ; by fanciful combina- 
tions of the dry and the humid, the hot and the cold ; 
by the prolific virtues of the sun, eliciting living 
creatures from a viviparous slime? What credit do 
we now give to the philosophical reveries of the 
very persons whom Cuvier himself mentions, Burnet, 
Woodward, Scheuchzer, Whiston, Leibnitz, Demaillet, 
BufFon, Kepler, De Lamarck, Patrin, Oken, StefFens, 
Delametherie, Lamanon, MM. de Marschall, Ber- 
trand, &c. &c. 



120 



WANT OF OCULAR PROOFS. 



I will venture to say that no philosophical account 
of the beginning of things here, or of the changes 
that the earth has undergone, has ever yet acquired 
so great credit, as the historical relation of Moses, 
principally on this account, that he wrote historically 
of things that we must be contented, in a very great 
degree, to take upon trust. No man saw the creation 1 ; 
and I may surely venture to say, that no man has ever 
seen the complete crumbling to pieces of former con- 
tinents by the action of rivers and other causes at this 
moment in operation ; no man has ever witnessed the 
scooping out of existing valleys, and the conveyance 
of their materials to the bottom of the ocean, there 
to be baked and consolidated under an enormous pres- 
sure, and formed into strata for future continents at 
some period in the lapse of " countless ages ;" no 
geologist, I say, not Dr. Hutton, not Mr. Playfair, 
not Mr. Lyell, ever saw these things fully operated ; in 
every case we are expected to take much upon trust, as 
though God could not possibly have produced what we 
see, otherwise than they conceive. Mr. Penn, fairly 

1 Hoc animi demum Ratio discernere debet, 
Nec possunt oculi naturam noscere rerum. 

Reason alone this question can invade, 
Eyes cannot see how nature's frame was made. 

These lines would be admirable if reason could actually supply the 
loss or want of vision ; but this we know, that in abundance of cases, 
it cannot do. Nothing can be more vain or presumptuous than to fancy 
that the human reason can penetrate the thick darkness with which 
the invisibilia of the commencement and end of things, is at present 
covered. There is one sense indeed in which " the invisible things of 
God" may be said to be " clearly seen, even his eternal power and 
Godhead," Rom. i. 20. ; but as to what the Almighty, in virtue of these 
exalted attributes, actually has done, or finally will do for us, we must 
be content, for the present, to " walk by faith not by sight," by faith, 
not reason ; though assuredly yet by a reasonable faith. 



INSTANTANEOUS PRODUCTIONS. 121 



enough, I think, writes to the same effect of Mr. 
Humboldt's principle of development. " If our great 
geognost should affirm that in thus asserting internal 
development, he speaks of positive facts, and not by 
hypothesis (Mr. H's avowed intention) I shall request 
him to direct me to the fact, of a rock in actual 
course of development from an amorphous to a per- 
fectly crystallized state" vol. i. 335. 

It has been admirably observed, that " the original 
instantaneous production of vegetables, birds, &c, &c, 
has never been made such a stumbling-block by the 
botanist or zoologist, as the first arrangement of the 
mineral strata has been by the geologist. No bota- 
nist or zoologist of sane reputation, inculcates that 
plants and animals acquired their perfect and unvary- 
ing forms, through successive organic depositions of 
wood or bone, in some primordial chaos of vitality V 

But this remark has been carried further by Mr. 
Granville Penn, in his theory of first formations ; and 
though it seems to be regarded as little less than a 
capital unpardonable offence against modern science 
to place any confidence in his geological reasonings 
and conclusions, if I may be permitted to call them 2 
such, yet I defy any pious, sober-minded Christian to 
read his work without feeling an inclination to agree 
with him upon several important points. 

I know that in referring to this writer, I am in 
some degree denouncing the system of De Luc, in 
which I have professed to have taken, a great, though 
not an unqualified interest, in time past (for Mr. 
Penn rejects all ideas of crystallization or chemical 

1 Professor Ure's New System of Geology. London. 1829. pp. 
81, 82. 

2 A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies. 

G 



122 DISPUTED ORIGIN OF GRANITE. 

precipitations, in the formation of granite, &c), yet I 
see not why these two authors should be held to differ 
so much as Mr. Penn apprehends. The only ques- 
tion between them, being in fact, when did God by 
his fiat place things in such a situation, as to be 
thenceforth carried on by secondary causes. Mr. 
Penn thinks granite was as much a first formation 
for the support of man's habitation, as bones were for 
the support of his person ; M. de Luc thinks granite 
was formed chemically upon the introduction of light : 
in both cases we discern a very just and pious ac- 
knowledgment of the great First Cause, and a cordial 
agreement as to the reception of the Mosaic epoch. 
Nor do I see why M. de Luc should be accused, so 
much as Mr. Penn does accuse him, of offending 
against the laws of Newton ; he seems as much to de- 
pend upon having discovered the most general cause of 
all visible things as Mr. Penn, though, indeed, he 
may appear to some to proceed from that cause in 
the w T ay of synthesis, rather than having first worked 
his way back to it by analysis, to take it up synthe- 
tically from that point ; but it was not really so : it 
would seem that one small letter would almost have 
reconciled Mr. Penn to M. de Luc's principle. For 
after citing the following passage from one of his 
geological letters, " La geologie est principalement 
distincte de Phistoire naturelle, en ce que celle-ci se 
borne a la description et classification des phenomenes 
que presente notre globe dans les trois regnes; au 
lieu que la premiere doit lier ces phenomenes avec 
leurs causes," he adds, we should rather have expected 
that such a writer would have said, 6J avec leur cause" 
Now, I will venture to say M. de Luc meant to say 
so : regarding light as a principle, wanting, and only 



LIGHT AND GRAVITATION. 



123 



to be supplied by that most sublime fiat of the 
Almighty, which has excited the admiration of all 
ages, and justly obtained for the author of the Book 
of Genesis, a place in the celebrated treatise of that 
eminent philosopher and critic of antiquity, Longinus. 
In fact, M. de Luc's appropriation of light in this 
case is precisely similar to Newton's appropriation of 
the principle of gravitation which Mr. Penn so much 
admires, Part I. chap. IX. " When Newton," he 
says, " ascribed the phenomena of our planetary system 
to a common secondary cause, he referred that se- 
condary cause immediately to the primary causation 
of the divine will and power, as the primary principle 
without which it would be inoperative and barren of 
all phenomena." I can perceive no difference in the 
two cases. The chaos of De Luc would then only 
deserve to be compared with the atomical system of 
Epicurus, when it should be set to work fortuitously, 
and without the intervention of an all-wise and all- 
controlling Providence. Mr. Penn is, I think, in 
like manner too severe upon De Luc for his delicacy 
about the term created. If creation must imply abso- 
lute perfection, independent of all subsequent modifi- 
cations, much of the very short account in Genesis 
would have been superfluous, especially Gen. i. v. 9, 
on which Mr. Penn lays great stress, for surely the 
distinction of sea and land might by creation as well 
have constituted part of a first formation, as been pro- 
duced by violent disruption of the solid surface of the 
earth, on which Mr. Penn insists, and whose ideas 
upon this head, seem as opposite to instantaneous per- 
fect creation, as any processes of chaotic precipitation 
and crystallization. — See Comparative Estimate, Part 
II. chap. V. 

g2 



124 



ANTIQUITY OF THE GLOBE. 



Having observed that Moses writes historically 
rather than philosophically, his office being to record 
only the act of creation, not the mode of it, to tell us 
that God made the world, not how he made it, I 
ought, perhaps, to say, that Mr. Lyell refers to his- 
tory, for a confirmation of the Huttonian theory of a 
succession of decays and renovations ; but the history 
to which he appeals, though supported by a great dis- 
play of learning, is certainly very different from the 
Mosaic history in point of credit. The Institutes of 
Menu — the Hymns of Orpheus, Cassander, Pytha- 
goras, Ovid (Metam. XV.), Aristotle, Strabo, &c. 

If we should grant that all these authors concur in 
giving countenance to the opinion of the immense 
antiquity of the globe, and of the powers of nature in 
successively destroying and renovating our continents, 
and their various inhabitants, still we may rely upon 
it, that our own history is altogether Mosaic ; we can 
go back regularly to Adam, but not a step beyond. 
And it must, I think, be admitted by all parties to be 
exceedingly remarkable, that the unphilosophical his- 
torian of our race, should have described things so 
much in conformity with the discoveries of modern 
geologists, as to make man the last of all created living 
beings ; and of recent introduction, if the world be as 
old as they pretend. 

It is possible," says an able journalist, " that 
even yet there may be some among our readers who 
will be startled by the assurance that no doubt can be 
entertained, from the evidence of organic fossils alone, 
exclusive of other cumulative proofs from the igneous 
and stratified rocks, that before the creation of any of 
the existing species of animals, of which man seems 
to be the most recent, the earth had been inhabited 



DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. 



125 



by innumerable other species and other genera, suc- 
cessively created and extinguished during a lapse of 
time wholly un measurable, but which must have com- 
prehended millions of ages rather than of years" 

It is the sole object of this treatise to prevent per- 
sons being so startled at such geological assurances, as 
to be turned aside, by any perplexities as to the his- 
tory of the earth, from the much more direct and 
indisputable evidence we have in our hands, of the 
history of man. 

But in the passage just cited, there are some ex- 
pressions, very puzzling to those who are not geo- 
logists, I should, perhaps, rather have said, very 
" startling ;" what are we to conclude from the words 
" even yet," but that the Huttonian theory has some- 
thing in it so indisputably convincing, that it is quite 
astonishing, past conception indeed, that there should 
be " even yet," persons, blind or perverse or obstinate 
enough to doubt that the very continents on which ice 
dwell, to say nothing of anterior ones, are of an im- 
mense age ; an age to be measured, for instance, by 
the time necessary for the scooping out of all our 
valleys, (in mountainous districts particularly), by 
existing causes. 

But it happens to be exceedingly well known, that 
opinions Very different from the above, concerning the 
age of our continents have been entertained and pub- 
licly avowed by naturalists of so great name, that it is 
impossible entirely to pass them over, especially as 
the opinions to which I allude, have been judged to 
be decisive of a very remarkable epoch in the history 
of the earth as well as of man ; and though it is my 
wish still, to confine my own observations as much as 

g 3 



126 



ORIGIN OF THINGS. 



possible to the history of man, I must say I am one of 
those who do not see " even yet" that the Huttonians, 
(or Lyellians, who on some points differ from the 
former), are the only persons in possession of the true 
history of the earth. 

It is very easy to say, as Dr. Hutton himself did 
say, that geology is in no ways concerned with 
" questions concerning the origin of things/' an opi- 
nion which Mr. Lyell thinks will ultimately and uni- 
versally prevail ; but if this be so, why should we 
bestow so much time, as professed geologists are known 
to do, in investigating a succession of changes, which 
if they do not carry us back to the actual origin of 
things, seem uselessly to carry us far back beyond 
the era of our own origin. There may be great want 
of taste, but surely no unpardonable contempt of 
science properly so called, in not being capable of 
fully appreciating the exalted feelings of a concliologist 
under some, at least, of the following circumstances. 

" A fossil shell may interest a concliologist, though 
he be ignorant of the locality from which it came ; 
but it will be of more value when he learns with what 
other species it was associated, whether they were 
marine or fresh water, whether the strata containing 
them were at a certain elevation above the sea, and 
what relative position in regard to other groups of 
strata, with many other particulars determinable by an 
experienced geologist alone. On the other hand, the 
skill of the comparative anatomist and conchologist 
are often indispensable to those engaged in geological 
research, although it will rarely happen, that the geo- 
logist will himself combine these different qualifica- 
tions in his own person." — Lyell i. 3. 



CAUTIONARY REMARKS. 



127 



It is certainly quite true that many sound believers, 
being geologists, have strongly expressed their own 
feelings upon the subject, to be as much as ever in 
favour of the divine authority of the sacred records ; 
and God forbid that I should be disposed to doubt it, 
but this is, I believe, in a great measure confined to 
the geologists of our own country ; on the continent 
it has long been known to be different ; and it is 
chiefly to prevent contagion from such examples that 
these " cautionary remarks" have been put together. 
If geologists are for discharging their favourite science 
from all connection with the Bible history of the 
beginning of things, it is but fit that the Bible should 
be more than ever secured and protected, from all im- 
proper interference, on the part of the geologists ; 
and that this has not been duly attended to in some 
parts of the continent, may be seen by the extracts 
I have introduced from M. de Luc's MS. Letter, both 
Jews and Christians in the kingdom of Prussia, having 
been induced (it matters not how long ago), expressly 
in consequence of what geology had been supposed 
to have brought to light 1 , to give up the Book of 
Genesis^ as a mere mythological invention. 

But if Genesis be no better than a fable, it deserves 
to be considered what is the amount of positive infor- 
mation we lose thereby; that is, of information no- 
where else to be acquired, though of infinite import- 
ance. If Genesis be a fable, then we know nothing- 
certain, first, of the mode by which evil was intro- 
duced into this portion of the universe ; secondly, of 
the real and proper cause of man's mortality; and 

1 See from Rosenmiiller, Penn, i. 193. 

Gr 4 



128 



UNGUARDED EXPRESSIONS. 



thirdly, of the remedy for both to be accomplished 
through Christianity, as shown by St. Paul in his 
Epistle to the Corinthians, on which I have said so 
much in other parts of this work. I am far from 
wishing to speak slightingly or disrespectfully, of 
researches, so curious, so amusing, and often, indeed, 
so hazardous and laborious, as those of professed geo- 
logists ; but let any serious, thoughtful person com- 
pare the three articles of information I have just 
mentioned, with all that can possibly be learned from 
geology alone, and I will venture to say, the latter 
will appear so exceedingly inferior, as not to merit a 
thought where anything like competition occurs, be- 
tween the physical geological appearances of the 
earth, and the grave, sober, and in short sacred his- 
tory of its rational inhabitants. For my own part I 
am very much disposed to think that some most emi- 
nent geologists have occasionally suffered remarks to 
flow from their pens, without sufficient consideration 
of the impressions they may make on unsettled minds. 
I find even Cuvier rather unguardedly referring to 
the "physical history of the globe, as the foundation of 
mineralogy, geography, and even, it may be said, of 
the history of man, and of all that it most concerns him 
to know with regard to himself" Surely the latter 
sentence is too unguarded. 

It may be, that " the decay and renovation system," 
so prevalent, and so countenanced at present, is very 
much in accordance with what is to be found in 
certain ancient writings; but it is surely too much 
to say, as it has been said, that the "most ancient 
historical records all ascribe the origin of the earth to 
a supreme Being, of eternal existence, omnipotent in 



MOSES AND THE HINDOOS. 



129 



power, and occasionally destroying and reproducing the 
globe and its inhabitants. Such was the doctrine of 
the Hindoos 880 years prior to the birth of Christ V 

It is impossible to resist laying- claim to a higher 
antiquity on behalf of Moses, not of a few years, but 
of as many as 652 at the least, the five books of 
Moses having been written as many as 1452 years 
B. c. according to some of our most respectable tables 
of chronology. The Hindoos (or Hindus) seem to 
be authorities of great weight with modern geologists ; 
Mr. Lyell begins his very curious work with a re- 
ference to the Institutes of Menu, as has been before 
observed. Now it is certainly somewhat curious to 
see how much more magnificently Moses could wTite 
of that " supreme Being, of eternal existence," &c, 
who made the world, than the Hindoos could write, 
six centuries and a half afterwards. The following is 
Moses' account of the hebdomadal production of the 
globe we inhabit. 

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, 
and all the host of them. 

" And on the seventh day God ended his work 
which he had made : and he rested on the seventh 
day from all his work that he had made. 

" And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified 
it; because that in it, he had rested from all his work 
which God created and made." 

Some persons I know have objected to the word 
rest as applied to the Deity; but, besides that it could 
not well mean any thing betokening fatigue, and was 
probably used only as emblematical of that rest enjoined 
to man in the sanctification of the Sabbath, let us see 

1 Discoveries of Modern Geologists, No. III. in Fraser's Magazine, 
No. XXXIII. 

G 5 



130 SUPREME BEING ACCORDING TO THE HINDOOS. 



how much rest and repose, nay slumbering and sleep- 
ing, the Hindoos attributed to the Being employed in 
destroying and renovating this globe and its inhabit- 
ants. 

" The Being whose powers are incomprehensible, 
having created me (Menu) and this universe, again 
became absorbed in the supreme spirit, changing the 
time of energy for the hour of repose. 

" When that power aivakes, then has this world its 
full expansion : but when he slumbers with a tranquil 
spirit, then the whole system fades away. For while 
he reposes, as it were, embodied spirits endowed with 
principles of action, depart from their several acts, 
and the mind itself becomes inert." 

Menu then describes the absorption of all beings 
into the Supreme Essence, and the divine soul itself is 
said to slumber, and to remain for a time immersed in 
"the first idea, or in darkness." He then proceeds 
(verse 57), " Thus that immutable power by waking 
and reposing alternately, revivifies and destroys, in 
eternal succession, this whole assemblage of locomotive 
and immoveable creatures." 

It is next declared, that there has been a long suc- 
cession of manivantaras, or periods, each of the dura- 
tion of many thousand ages, and there are creations 
also, and destructions of worlds innumerable. " The 
Being supremely exalted, performs all this with as 
much ease as if in sport, again and again for the sake 
of conferring happiness." 

Mr. Lyell has so much qualified his admission of 
the above into his book, as amounting to any actual 
record of history, much less of revelation, that I must 
not attempt to say more of it, than that it is utterly 
astonishing to my mind, that puerile as the one ac- 



THE SABBATH A MEMORIAL. 



131 



count is, the other, which is more than 600 years 
older should be so much grander, more intelligible, 
and more applicable to the visible condition of 
things. 

For in the Mosaic history referred to, we have the 
origin of the Sabbatical institution ; a memorial of past 
times, surpassing in my own estimation, in value and 
importance, all else that has been transmitted to us 
from the remotest ages ; and which for many reasons, 
seems at this time not lightly to be passed over. By 
the Sabbath, as a memorial, we have it in our power, 
to ascend regularly from the day that is passing over 
our heads, if not to the creation, at the very least, to 
the delivery of the Decalogue on Mount Sinai in the 
desert. As a memorial, we have it to appeal to, as a 
direct proof of the resurrection of Christ, when in 
assertion of Christian liberty, and to clear the Christian 
Sabbath as it were, from all Pharisaical pollutions, 
the Hebdomadal arrangement underwent a change 
in commemoration of that great event ; and which 
has ever since been observed, with such a general 
consent and acquiescence, as to leave no doubt upon 
the subject. Nor was this change so destitute of pro- 
priety, or so unconnected with the old covenant, as 
has been supposed ; for though I must travel back 
into antiquity again for my authority, yet it is such 
good authority, so plain and intelligible, when ob- 
tained, that I cannot refrain from bringing it for- 
ward. It is as nearly as can be sixteen hundred 
years old, but not the worse for that; it is in short 
the authority of Cyprian, a prelate learned, virtuous, 
firm, and constant, under persecution. He not only 
bears testimony to the adoption and propriety of a 
septenary Christian festival, but after observing that 
g 6 



132 



SPIRITUAL CIRCUMCISION. 



the Jewish circumcision, being on the eighth day, 
contained a mystery fulfilled in Christ, goes on to 
say, 44 because the eighth day, that is, the first after 
the Sabbath, was to be the day on which our Lord 
should rise and quicken us, and give us the spiritual 
circumcision, this eighth day, that is, the first after 
the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day, preceded in the 
image, which image ceased when the truth supervened, 
and the spiritual circumcision was given to us." It 
has been well observed by Mr. Holden, in his learned 
work on the Sabbath, that the above being contained 
in a Synodical Epistle, may be held to express the 
testimony and opinion not of one father alone, but of 
many. 

The Sabbath besides, as a heavenly institution, 
has all the proof in its favour that could be required, 
as well internal as external. The most direct external 
proof of its heavenly origin, is its admission into the 
Decalogue, which has now for ages been received as 
a collection of laws, more than figuratively written, 
with " the finger of God." That the institution itself is 
older than the actual delivery of the law, I collect 
from these two very simple circumstances ; first, that 
instead of running, " Remember to keep holy the 
Seventh Day," it is, " Remember to keep holy the 
Sabbath Day ;" which must imply that they had 
been already accustomed to keep holy such a festival 
as was known by that name ; which is also much cor- 
roborated by the application of the word " Remember." 
The question however still remaining of what age was 
the institution they were thus bidden to " Remember 
the reference to the works of creation would be pro- 
per in either case. Had it been 44 Remember to keep 
holy the Seventh Day," the reference to the creation 



SABBATH WHEN INSTITUTED. 



133 



would explain the reason for hallowing that day, and 
making it the Sabbath; but in the other case it very 
naturally stands connected with the Sabbath, as a no 
less worthy object of remembrance. The passage, 
Deuteronomy v. 15. in constituting the Sabbath, the 
memorial also of the departure of the Israelites out of 
Egypt, seems to me only to make the case stronger ; 
for had there not been an earlier reason for sanctifying 
the Seventh Day, the departure from Egypt would 
surely have made part of the commandment. In 
my own estimation, even the account we have in the 
sixteenth chapter of Exodus, of the gathering of the 
manna in the wilderness, which Paley fixed upon as 
the first institution of the Sabbath, is calculated to 
show that it was known before ; for on the surprise 
expressed by the people at the double supply on the 
sixth day, Moses is represented as reminding them, 
that the morrow was the rest of the holy Sabbath unto 
the Lord ; v. 23, and on the morrow^ as the text runs, 
" Moses said, Eat that to-day ; for to-day is a Sabbath 
unto the Lord, to-day ye shall not find it in the field ; 
six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, 
which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." The 
28th and the 29th verses also tend to show, that one 
of the commandments they had previously refused to 
keep, was the law of the Sabbath ; to fix which more 
strongly on their minds, the sixth day's double supply 
seems to have been intended. And this might even 
accord with the calculation of the learned Mede, who, 
to prove this to be the first institution of the Sabbath, 
has been at the pains to show that on the seventh day 
preceding, they had journeyed all the day, and needed 
therefore a miracle to bring them back to their senses. 
I regard as another strong external proof of the 



134 



WEEKLY DIVISION OF TIME. 



early institution of the Sabbath, the division of time 
into weeks, undoubtedly derived from the most remote 
antiquity. 

The keeping up of the Sabbath, or rather perhaps 
the consecration of the seventh day by the Christians, 
when all of the law that was strictly ceremonial was to 
cease, and in so marked a manner as to make it com- 
memorative of the " new creation" consummated by 
the death and resurrection of Christ, constitutes it, 
I think, as much a moral law, as any of the other nine. 
Obedience being- at all events a moral obligation, and 
the commandment being very decisively admitted into 
the Christian code. I stop not to consider the strange 
objections that have been raised to the observance of 
Sunday, as though it were almost an anti-christian 
delusion, to venture upon any distinction of days ; for 
that, " to a true Christian every day is a Sabbath, 
every place is a temple, and every action of life an 
act of devotion ;" I look rather to the actual effects 
and bearings of such an institution, as amounting to 
nothing less than an internal proof of its divine ori- 
ginal. If it should be so, that to every true Christian, 
every day is a Sabbath, every place a temple, every 
act an act of devotion, what effect can this have upon 
those who are not yet true Christians, who at present 
resort to no temple, and practise no act as an act of 
devotion ? Can it be wise, can it be humane, to set 
such persons free from the law of the fourth command- 
ment, when the observance of it cannot fail to produce 
effects as beneficial to society at large, as to individuals 
themselves ? 

" While travelling the journey of life," says a most 
learned and eloquent divine, " whether the path lie 
through a bleak and barren waste, or through verdure 



IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH. 



135 



and flowers, mankind, unless frequently reminded of 
the end and object of their pursuit, would faint under 
the difficulties to which they are exposed. On the 
seventh day they are so reminded; on that day they 
are cautioned of the danger of loitering on the way; 
the all glorious reward of victory is laid before them, 
and they are exhorted to press forward towards the 
mark for the prize of their high calling in Christ." 

But perhaps some may say, this is but begging the 
question ; that this may apply to Church-goers, but 
what has it to do with the community at large ? This 
is a point not over-looked by the same excellent writer, 
and his observations I think are admirable. 

" How is it possible," says he, " for those who are 
endowed with but ordinary sensibility, to behold the 
holy preparations of the Sabbath, without some serious 
thoughts arising in the mind ? The noise of rustic 
labour ceases, the din of mercantile tumult is hushed, 
the shops and marts of business are closed, and the 
opened gates of the temples of our God invite the 
multitudes who crowd the streets to assemble in the 
consecrated precincts. Who can witness so many 
human beings congregating together for the purpose 
of divine worship, without feeling a desire to join in 
paying adoration to the Sovereign Lord ? He who 
can be a cold and unmoved spectator of thousands of 
his fellow-creatures assembling to celebrate their 
Creator's praise, must possess a heart but little sus- 
ceptible of any gentle and virtuous impulse." 

What can be the use of scrutinizing too closely the 
exact character of the fourth commandment ; as though 
Christians would be justified in casting it aside as a 
mere ceremonial law of the Jews ? If a positive law be 
conducive to moral ends of the highest importance; 



136 



THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 



if it be found to promote the peace and harmony of 
society ; to restrain the vicious appetites of mankind ; 
to draw them away from too great a fondness for 
earthly things which must come to an end, and give 
them a foretaste of the joys of heaven which will never 
end ; if it tend to keep us from any breach or trans- 
gression of the other nine commandments, which are 
allowed to be of a moral nature : lastly, if it be calcu- 
lated to give us right notions of our present uncertain 
mortal state, and enables us to keep up our acquaint- 
ance with heaven, who, with any feelings of humanity, 
could ever consent to banish from the world the bless- 
ing of the Sabbath Day, though it should seem to have 
come to us in the form of & positive ceremonial law. 

66 It is no rash assertion," says a very sensible Trans- 
atlantic prelate, " that from this holy institution, (the 
Sabbath) have accrued to man, more knowledge of his 
God, more instruction in righteousness, more guidance 
of his affections, and more consolation of his spirit, 
than from all other means which have been devised 
in the world to make him wise and virtuous. We 
cannot fully estimate the effects of the Sabbath, unless 
we were once deprived of it. Imagination cannot 
picture the depravity which would gradually ensue, if 
time were thrown into one promiscuous field, without 
those heaven- erected beacons to rest and direct the 
passing pilgrim. Man would then plod through a 
wilderness of being, and one of the main avenues 
which now admits the light which illumines his path, 
would be perpetually closed 1 ." 

Is the Decalogue to be abridged of such a law, be- 
cause it is of too positive and ceremonial a character 

1 Sermons by the late Right Rev. Dr. Dehon, Bishop of South 
Carolina. 



DECALOGUE WITHIN THE ARK. 



137 



to be adopted by Christians ! Is no distinction any- 
longer to be put upon the seventh day, because some 
who call themselves Christians happen to feel and to 
think, that as far as regards piety and morality, the 
fear of God, and the love of man, every day should 
be a Sunday, and man's whole life a perpetual Sab- 
bath? Why was not the fourth commandment with- 
drawn from the Decalogue by the Jews themselves, 
before they deposited the whole within the ark, while 
the law of ceremonial ordinances was not so distin- 
guished ? 

" No other cause for this distinction," says Mr. 
Holden, " can reasonably be assigned, than its being 
intended by the Almighty for universal reception. 
The laws of the two tables were written with the 
finger of God, to signify their identity with the law 
of nature imprinted on the heart of man, by the same 
Sovereign Lord : and they were placed in the ark, to 
intimate their inseparable connection with the covenant 
of grace, of which the Holy of Holies was an emble- 
matical representation." 

I shall introduce one more extract from the writings 
of a living author, and justly celebrated divine \ in 
proof of the moral bearings and effects of the law of 
the Sabbath. 

" I have often heard it remarked by Christians of a 
serious and devout disposition, to whom the sacred day 
of rest had become through habit and principle, a sea- 
son of hallowed delight, that it seemed to their eyes, 
as if, on the Sabbath, the sun did shine more bright, 
the works of God appear more beautiful, the fields 

1 Benson's Hulsean Lectures. 



138 



SABBATICAL FEELINGS. 



more fresh, the flowers more sweet, and all the face of 
nature to wear an unusual and a fitting stillness. It 
is not that the sun does shine more bright, or that the 
fields are indeed more fresh, or the flowers more sweet 
upon this, than upon any other day. It is only that 
we are apt to think thus, because our minds are 
attuned to order and to piety and to contemplation. 
It is because our hearts are harmonized by the general 
repose and regularity around us. We look upon the 
joyful countenance of man, we hear no strife, we see 
no sorrow ; labour is at an end, quietness is upon the 
scene, and our affections are weaned from earthly and 
fixed upon heavenly things. The goodness of God, 
and the beauty of holiness force themselves into our 
thoughts, and in the fulness of the feeling we almost 
fancy that the inanimate creation has been taught to 
sympathize with the benevolence of our souls, and to 
" remember," like ourselves the Sabbath of God. 
This is mere imagination ; but then it is a godly im- 
agination, and God forbid, that by pointing out the 
cause of the delusion, I should rob the amiable mind 
of any Christian of a pleasing sentiment which he 
would wish to cherish, and which cannot possibly be 
productive of any ill effects." 

There is something very striking in the following 
short passage to be found in Mr. Hartley's account of 
his visit to the Apocalyptic Churches in the year 
1826. 

" April 9. To-day we had the intention of proceed- 
ing but a short distance, a Sabbath-day' 's journey ; but 
unexpectedly not meeting with a single house for 
more than nine hours, we were compelled to proceed 
as far as Deenare. On leaving Chardar, at seven 



MODEL FOR THE WORKS OF MAN. 139 

o'clock, there was a stillness and serenity all around, 
which seemed to harmonize with a Christian Sabbath : 
but, — 

" 4 The sound of the Church-going bell 
These valleys and rocks never heard :' 

or, if the invitation to Christian worship was ever 
known, it has long been succeeded by the cry of the 
Muezzin. O for the time, when we shall hear of 
Christian Mustaphas, Omars, Alis, and Mehmets ?" 

I should not perhaps dwell so much upon the Sab- 
bath, and upon the reasons we have for accounting its 
observance to be a matter of universal obligation, had 
it not been so mixed up with the Mosaic account of 
the beginning of things. Without attempting to discuss, 
as many very learned and serious Christians have 
done, the precise length of the demiurgic days, I am 
disposed to look to the admirable effects of an ap- 
pointed Sabbath for the best clue, to this portion of 
the history of the creation. Dr. Geddes conceives 
the six days' creation to have been expressly invented 
by Moses, to account for the Jewish Sabbath. We 
may reasonably ask, what then could be the true 
account ? It is much better said by Professor Jenkin, 
in his Reasonableness of Christianity, book ii. c. 9. 
" If God saw fit to appoint one day in seven, to be a 
day of rest, this was sufficient reason for the assign- 
ment of six days to the work of creation, independent 
of all other reasons." According to this idea, the 
works of God might be intended to serve for ever, as 
an exemplar and model for the works of man; but 
there is another very remarkable circumstance con- 
nected with the Hexaemeron, and which I have treated 
of at length in one of the notes to my sixth Bampton 
Lecture. 



140 



DAY OF REST. 



Apion, the great adversary of the Jews, in his 
observations on the Hebrew Sabbath, (a very frivolous 
critique) admits that the seventh day had always 
been a day of rest ; and Philo has a long passage to 
the same effect, observing that it had become as 
general as the hebdomadal division of time. From 
whom then could this week, with one day of rest, be 
so regularly derived as from the Jews, whose reckon- 
ing of their days was strictly hebdomadal, as first, 
second, third, &c. every seventh day only being dis- 
tinguished by a title, and that title significative of 
rest ? And how regularly and consistently this day or 
season of rest, was kept in view from the time of 
Adam to the days of the apostles, may be seen in the 
fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where 
the original Sabbatical rest expressed by both words 
oafifiaTLafAog and /car air av trig, the promised rest of the 
land of Canaan, and of the heavenly rest which yet 
4C remaineth to the people of God," v. 9. are so 
brought together as to be best described by the fol- 
lowing passage from Isaiah : " Remember the former 
things of old : for I am God, and there is none else ; 
I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the 
end from the beginning, and from ancient times 
the things that are not yet done, saying, My 
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." 
Chap. xlvi. 9, 10. Tacitus, in his strange conceit 
about the Jews, that they meant to do honour to 
Saturn by keeping Saturday holy, notices its Sab- 
batical character, <£ Septimo die, otium, placuisse 
ferunt." According to Tertullian, the Christians in 
his days, because they kept Sunday, were exactly in 
the same manner charged with worshipping the sun. 
In the latter case, however, the charge itself amounts 



NUMBER SEVEN. 



141 



to a proof that in the time of Tertullian, who lived 
in the second century, the Christians kept Sunday as 
a " day of joy," which is his own expression ; he also 
in various places calls it " the Lord's Day." 

When our Saviour told his disciples that " the Sab- 
bath was made for man" he must have intended that 
it was meant for the rest and relief of his body, as 
well as to be spent in religious improvement; and 
certainly for man generally, that is for all men. Even 
Plato was for referring all festivals and days of rest 
to the appointment of the gods, moved thereto by pity 
for those that were horn for -painful labour. 

One of the objections raised to the Mosaic order of 
creation, is, that it is unworthy of God to represent 
him as accomplishing the creation progressively and 
not instantaneously; and indeed it would be extremely 
difficult to say why Moses should have written so, if 
it had not been with some view to the Sabbatical in- 
stitution. No person could have in a more sublime 
manner shown, that he knew it to be possible for God 
to have created the earth, and all things in it in an 
instant. " Let there be light, and light was ;" " let 
there be a firmament," and there was a firmament; 
" let the waters be separated from the waters," and 
they were separated. 

The weekly division of time, which prevailed, as 
Scaliger observes, from the earliest times, " ab ultima 
usque antiquitate" which is his strong expression, 
must surely have arisen out of the order of the 
creation recited by Moses; hence also probably the 
very general use and adoption of the number seven 
in the Scriptures. To notice but a few, in the book 
of Revelation alone, the seven churches, seven candle- 
sticks, seven spirits, seven stars., seven lamps, 



142 



THE DELUGE. 



seven seals, seven angels, seven vials, seven 
plagues, &c. 

Sometimes Moses is accused of inventing, at others 
of borrowing : in my own estimation he stands clear 
of both. When the number seven was found to 
apply to our planetary system, it was immediately 
concluded that Moses had borrowed his hebdomadal 
reckoning from India, where planetary names had 
been given to the seven days. But besides that it is 
capable of proof that the reckoning by weeks was 
much anterior to the observation of the seven planets, 
we now know that the Sanscrit planetary names for 
the seven days, agree with those of the Greeks and 
Romans, of whom of course Moses could know nothing. 
Thus, andeeta war was their solis dies ; soma ivar, 
LUNiE dies; mungel war, martis dies; boodh war, 
mercurii dies: breehaspati war, jovis dies; sookra 
war, veneris dies; sanischer war, saturni dies. 

But it is time to turn to the second epoch mentioned 
by the Baron Cuvier, at the commencement of this 
section of my work, the deluge. 

It has already been observed, and on more occa- 
sions than one, that since geology has become so 
fashionable, the authority of Moses upon all subjects 
strictly philosophical is pretty generally denounced ; 
in foreign parts with a blameable irreverence, but, in 
our own country, where a better spirit prevails, with 
a becoming reverence, though almost as decidedly. 

I confess such a denunciation has in itself never 
given me a moment's uneasiness. If Moses wrote by 
inspiration, it is of infinitely more importance, that 
he should have the credit of being a prophet than a 
philosopher. In strict truth he could not have been a 
philosopher, in the sense intended ; and I have already 



FACE OF THE EARTH. 



143 



hinted, that, in my opinion, his not being a philo- 
sopher, greatly enhances his credit as a sacred 
historian. With respect to the deluge, for instance, 
let geologists decide as they please as to the evi- 
dences of such an event, still discoverable, or not so, 
on our present continents, I should be inclined to 
take the negative side of the question, and ask to 
have it accounted for, why the body of the earth, 
exhibits nothing that can be said to amount to a 
positive contradiction of such a catastrophe as Moses 
describes ? We pretty well know where Moses passed 
the whole of the 120 years of his sojournment on 
earth, and consequently how very circumscribed a 
knowledge he must have had of the general face of 
the globe, when he wrote the history of the deluge. 

Now, were our geologists, who have nearly searched 
all the world over, able to tell us, that they had never 
detected any appearances of violent diluvian action ; 
any marks of the sea having ever changed its bed ; 
of its having covered all that is noiv dry land, and left 
proofs behind of such a nature as to admit of no 
dispute, whether applied generally to a succession of 
mundane revolutions, or more particularly to the 
Mosaic deluge ; if this had been the result of their 
examination of the earth's surface, what could we say, 
but that Moses, writing by guess, of what he could 
not have known experimentally, or intending to dis- 
cribe things mythologically for the amusement rather 
than for the information of those who were to come 
after him, must be excused for having described things 
so, as to receive no countenance or confirmation from 
the discoveries of after times ; particularly from the 
researches of our modern philosophers, bent upon 
ascertaining, to the utmost of their power, the nature 



144 



ANTE-DILUVIAN AND POST DILUV1AN. 



of the revolutions that may have taken place on the 
surface of the globe. 

Moses' account of the deluge is certainly given in 
such terms as to depicture a most awful catastrophe, 
by means of water, sl destructive overwhelming of all 
the inhabited parts of the earth, to say the least ; and 
surely we have a right to ask, does the earth on 
examination exhibit no signs of violent and sudden 1 
catastrophes ? Have no living creatures been appar- 
ently drowned and transported, under circumstances 
so inexplicable even at this day, as to baffle the skill 
of the most eminent naturalists to account for their 
appearance in the places where they find them? Has 
nothing been discovered indicative of sucli changes on 
the surface of the earth, in the level of the sea, in 
regard to climate and other localities, as seem to be- 
speak a former different state of things; such as, if 
the Mosaic or Noachic deluge were true, we should 
be disposed to call ante-diluvian, in contradistinction 
to the jjost-diluvian earth we seem to be inhabiting? 
Lastly, if Adam were not the first of our race, have 
no traces been any where found of a race of Pre- 
adamites ? 

These surely are questions we have a right to ask, 
considering that Moses could not have written philo- 
sophically of such things, nor yet historically, but at 
great risk of being found guilty of mistakes, quite 
incorrigible, that is, exposed to positive contradiction, 
as has indeed been observed before. Michaelis has 
made the remark, that the author of the Pentateuch 
wrote more accurately of the places and regions which 
were nearest to him, than of any more remote, and 

1 See Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, p. 36, 37, who thinks that in 
certain cases, slow causes cannot be admitted. 

12 



OF THE DELUGE. 



145 



particularly marks the limits within which his geogra- 
phical knowledge of the globe appears to have been 
confined. All the ancient writers, indeed, seem to 
have written under great ignorance of places at any 
great distance from their own country. Josephus in 
his tract against Apion, has dwelt largely upon this ; 
he mentions the case of Ephorus, one of the best of 
the Greek historians, in his estimation, who thought 
Spain to be but one city , and notices the total silence 
of Herodotus, Thucydides, and other historians, as to 
the affairs of the Romans. Now Herodotus, Thucy- 
dides, &c. wrote nearly a thousand years after Moses, 
and yet seem to have interested themselves very little 
about what was passing in some of the most con- 
spicuous portions of the globe ; we may well conclude 
therefore, that Moses, humanly speaking, must have 
written the Pentateuch in much ignorance of distant 
and remote parts, and yet he ventured upon an history 
of the very beginning of things, as regarded our whole 
species ; that is, in short, of Adam as the progenitor 
of the whole human race; and has never been con- 
tradicted. No, not by any subsequent fossil dis- 
covery of those scientific hyperboreans, of the existence 
of whom MM. Buffo7i and Bailly appear to have been 
so sure ; a people able to discover the lunisolar period 
of 600 years, which must, says M. Buffon, have re- 
quired two or three thousand years exertion of the 
human mind. 

The deluge, as connected with terrestrial pheno- 
mena, remains in the hands of geologists, an apple of 
discord, as much as ever; some think they have dis- 
covered indelible traces of its ravages; others pro- 
fess to see nothing of the kind ; some think they can 
trace back the exact age of our present post-diluvian 

H 



146 



CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS. 



continents by such regular chronometers as to leave no 
doubt upon the subject; others make use of the very 
same chronometers 1 to prove that no such dates can 
be relied on. 

"The grand fact of an universal deluge," (I am 
citing the words of no less a man than Professor 
Buckland), "at no very remote period, is proved on 
grounds so decisive and incontrovertible, that had we 
never heard of such an event from Scripture or any 
other authority, geology of itself must have called in 
the assistance of some such catastrophe to explain the 
phenomena of cliluvian action, which are universally 
presented to us, and which are unintelligible without 
recourse to a deluge exerting its ravages at a period 
not more ancient than that announced in the Book of 
Genesis." 

" Of the Mosaic deluge particularly," says Dr. 
Macculloch, " I have no hesitation in saying, that it 
has never been proved to have produced a single exist- 
ing appearance of any kind, and that it ought to be 
struck out of the list of geological causes V 

I could not have placed the above remarks in such 
glaring opposition to each other, for any other pur- 
pose than to show what different views have been 
taken of the very continents on which we are passing 
our lives, by eminent geologists, in the compass of 
but a few years ; and to satisfy any sincere believers 
who may feel interested, in the discovery of coin- 
cidences of the nature alluded to, between the sacred 
history of the earth, and terrestrial phenomena, that 
whatsoever discouragement they might receive from 
Dr. Macculloch's strong denial of all existing evi- 

1 The deltas of rivers particularly. 

2 System of Geology, vol. i. pp. 445, 446. 



PHYSICAL CHRONOMETERS. 



147 



dences of the flood, to be traced on our present conti- 
nents, they may still have the support of so very emi- 
nent an observer, and so renowned a geologist, as Mr. 
Professor Buckland. 

But this is not all ; Dr. Buckland has not expressed 
himself more strongly and decisively upon this head, 
than many other geologists of great name. Dr. 
Buckland is living, and I have the honour and pleasure 
of his acquaintance ; but such has been the conflict of 
opinions upon geological subjects even within my 
own memory, that I am almost scrupulous of citing any 
of my older acquaintance, particularly De Luc ; with 
whom the task of determining the age, the low age, of 
our present continents by regular chronometers 1 , ori- 
ginated, and much of whose valuable life was passed 
in collecting proofs, by personal observation, in all 
the great states of Europe, as his books and papers 
in my possession would abundantly show. But his 
opinions upon the subject have long been known to 
the public at large, and I need not swell my book by 

1 As I am not writing for the information of philosophers or geolo- 
gists, but of general readers, likely to be attracted to the perusal of geo- 
logical works, more perhaps by the thirst of amusement than of actual 
knowledge, such works being often in the form of Travels, &c. &c, I 
shall explain what is meant by these terrestrial chronometers or mea- 
surers of the lapse of time since the birth of our continents, in the words 
of the Baron Cuvier. 

" It must, in fact," says the Baron, "have been since the last retreats 
of the waters, that our present steep declivities have begun to disin- 
tegrate, and to form heaps of debris at their bases ; that our present 
rivers have begun to flow and to deposit their alluvial matters ; that our 
present vegetation has begun to extend itself, and to produce soil ; that 
our present cliffs have begun to be corroded by the sea; that our pre- 
sent downs have begun to be thrown up by the wind ; just as it must 
have been since this same epoch, that colonies have begun, for the first 
or second time to spread themselves, and to form establishments in 
places fitted by nature for their reception." 

H 2 



148 



DOLOMIEU. 



uncalled for extracts, much less by any needless vin- 
dication of his just fame, from the cavils of certain of 
his opponents. I cannot, however, avoid transcribing 
the testimony of one of his contemporaries, who did 
not agree with him upon all points. I mean the cele- 
brated Dolomieu, with whom also I once carried on a 
correspondence, and whose account of the Lipari 
Islands, I was at the pains of translating into English *, 
more, I think, than forty years ago. 

Now the testimony of Dolomieu, in corroboration of 
De Luc's opinion, as to the age of our continents, is 
if possible stronger than even Dr. Buckland's ; it may 
be found indeed in my own translation of the Geolo- 
gical Letters in the old series of the " British Critic," 
1793, 1794, 1795; but as M. de la Fite has judged 
proper to print it otherwise, in his translation of 1831, 
adding something of additional effect, and certainly 

1 In conjunction with another deceased friend of mine, Dr. Beddoes, 
whose Life was afterwards written and published in 4to. by Dr. Stock, 
1 undertook the translation of the work ; Dolomieu engaged to send us 
drawings of some of his own specimens deposited in the King's Library, 
at Paris, a bookseller was engaged and an engraver, and all that Dr. 
Beddoes had to contribute, was a Preface, on the Vulcanian and Nep- 
tunian Systems. Whoever may have read Dr. Stock's Life of my friend 
and proposed co-operator, will not be surprised to find that at the last 
moment he deserted us. Incessantly occupied in new pursuits, as his 
curiosity became excited, by any object requiring research and elucida- 
tion, by the time I had finished my share of the work, he was deeply 
engaged in his experiments upon airs, and when I met him at Bristol 
Hot Wells, and put my translation into his hands (which I never saw 
afterwards), I found him so absorbed in his endeavours to find a cure for 
that horrible disease the Phthisis Pulmonalis, that had he put my manu- 
script in the fire before my face, I should have found it in my heart to have 
forgiven him. He did not despair of finding time to write his Preface, 
but his geological fervour was for the moment half extinguished, and he 
did not live to accomplish that and abundance of other things, which 
had at different times occupied and deeply interested his over-ardent 
mind. 



CUVIER. 



149 



nothing inconsistent with the original, possibly taken 
from some other work of Dolomieu s *, I shall give it 
in his words, only inclosing within brackets M. de la 
Fite's very reasonable additions. 

66 1 will defend a truth which appears to me incon- 
testible ; [which the words of De Luc have rendered 
evident to me], and of which I find proofs in every 
page of [the] history [of man] as well as in what it 
naturally should be referred to, the facts visible in 
nature ; [with M. de Luc I shall say], that the present 
state of our continents is not ancient ; [with him I 
think], that it is no long time since they have been 
given up to the dominion of man." This testimony is 
the more noticeable, because upon another occasion, 
in which Dolomieu was supposed to fall in with the 
Huttonian theory? Professor Playfair boasts of his sup- 
port in the following remarkable terms: " In this con- 
clusion the two theories perfectly agree : and if they 
do so, it is only because the nature of things has 
forced them into agreement, notwithstanding the dis- 
similitude of their fundamental principles." If the 
concurrence of Dolomieu was so irresistible in the 
one case, we have a right to conclude it may have 
been equally so in the other. 

After these comes the Baron Cuvier himself, the 
oracle of modern geologists, so lately lost to the world, 
and so much to be lamented. 

" It may be seen," says he, " that nature every- 
where distinctly informs us, that the commencement 
of the present order of things cannot be dated at a 

1 The work cited by M. de la Fite, is, the Memoire sur les Pierres 
Compctsees et sur les Roches (Journal de Physique de Paris, torn. xli. 
part ii. p. 42. 1792). 

H 3 



150 



SUBMERSION OF 



very remote period ; and it is remarkable that man- 
kind every where speak the same language with na- 
ture." In another place, 

cc I am of opinion with M. De Luc and M. Dolo- 
mieu, that if there is any circumstance thoroughly 
established in geology, it is that the crust of our 
globe has been subjected to a great and sudden revo- 
lution, the epoch of which cannot be dated much 
farther back than five or six thousand years ago ; and 
that this revolution had buried all the countries which 
were before inhabited by men, and by the other animals 
that are now best known. That, on the other hand, 
it laid dry the bottom of the last sea, and formed of it 
the countries which are at the present day inhabited ; 
that it is since the occurrence of this revolution, that 
the small number of individuals displaced by it have 
spread and propagated over the newly exposed lands, 
and consequently that it is since this epoch only, that 
human societies have assumed a progressive march, 
that they have formed establishments, raised monu- 
ments, collected natural facts, and invented scientific 
systems." 

I have carried the above extract rather farther, 
than I find it quoted by Professor Buckland, in order 
to include a portion of the Baron's theory, to which, 
I believe, the learned professor has never signified his 
assent. I mean the submersion of the ante-diluvian 
inhabited continents, leaving our present continents, 
the former bed of the sea, dry. 

Into this question I have no business to enter at 
any length. Dr. Buckland, after citing the first part 
of the above passage from Baron Cuvier, in his in- 
augural Lecture, concludes, " The two great points 
then of the low antiquity of the human race, and the 



ANCIENT CONTINENTS. 



151 



universality of a recent deluge, are most satisfactorily 
confirmed by every thing that has yet been brought 
to light by geological investigations." 

A very different conclusion certainly from Dr. 
Macculloch's ; but let me not do any injustice to the 
last-named diligent observer, he of course leaves us 
the full benefit of the Mosaic history, as to the history 
of man. 

The Dr. is decidedly one of those, who judge it not 
to be fit to seek support for the Scriptures in geological 
researches and conclusions ; and in this I agree with him, 
not thinking that the Scriptures need press into their 
service geology or any other science ; but I cannot 
see that it is any degradation to the Scriptures or any 
impediment to the progress of knowledge, as has been 
insinuated, to accept support from the science of geo- 
logy, when it may be received at the hands of such 
distinguished naturalists, as De Luc, Dolomieu, Cu- 
vier, and Buckland ; to whom, might be added, 
Saussure, Brogniart, Kennedy, Professor Jameson, 
(in his edit, of Cuvier, p. 378), Townsend, &c, &c. 
but Dr. M. regards the Deluge in toto, as " that 
eternal resource of every geologist, who finds none in 
his own intellect, and not to be appealed from, but 
under the fulminated penalties of all the infallible 
theories." The Doctor's strictures are certainly se- 
vere, but very amusing. 

But it is time to notice the other peculiarity, if 1 
may call it so, of De Luc's system, which the Baron 
Cuvier seems to have adopted : I mean, the mode in 
which the punishment of the Deluge was brought on 
the condemned inhabitants of the ante-diluvian conti- 
nents. He supposes those continents sunk with all that 
were upon them, and that we are now inhabiting the 
h 4 



152 



GENESIS VII. 13; PETER III. 6. 



bottom of that sea, which was displaced by the sinking 
of the condemned continents. Of course, therefore, 
nothing decidedly ante-diluvian, as far as regards the 
race of man may probably remain ; it is still doubted 
whether we find any in a fossil state ; and it is certain, 
and I think very remarkable, that not only in the 
original denunciation, Genesis vi. 13, all flesh were to 
be destroyed "with the earth 1 ," i.e. the earth on 
which they dwelt, but that St. Peter, no otherwise 
connected with the patriarchal ages, than as an apostle 
of him who was the alpha and omega, the beginning 
and the end, should have described the catastrophe of 
the Deluge, as the "perishing of the world that then 
was, by an overflow of water," 1 Peter iii. 6. 

I know not whether such references will be judged 
to savour too much of a physico-theology, to be ad- 
mitted by certain geologists, as any proof of the de- 
struction of the ante-diluvian continents, but in such 
a work as the present, I trust the authority of St. 
Peter for one mundane revolution, may, at the least, 
be allowed to stand upon as good a footing, as the 
authority of the institutes of Menu for many. I say 
not this out of any disrespect to Mr. Lyell, who has 
made the reference to which I allude, but because no 
geologist has evinced, perhaps not altogether without 
reason, a greater jealousy of systems and theories, 
deduced solely from the words of Scripture. He ex- 

1 De Luc was so desirous of not making more of this system of the 
Deluge than the words of Scripture would fully warrant, that he applied 
to many Hebrew scholars, without any communication of his views, for 
the most literal translation they could furnish, and it is remarkable, that 
Micliaelis was one, who in his own German version renders it, " Behold 
I will destroy them, and the earth with them."— De la Fite's Intro- 
ductory Remarks — more may be seen upon the subject in the publica- 
tions of Mr. Penn, and more recently of Mr. Fairholme. 



UNIVERSALITY OF THE DELUGE ? 



153 



pressly states, " that the progress of geology has been 
only a constant and violent struggle, between new 
opinions and ancient doctrines, sanctioned by the im- 
plicit faith of many generations, and supposed to rest 
on Scriptural authority." 

The universality of the Noachian Deluge, has 
always been a questionable point with modern philo- 
sophers, especially when insisted upon by physico- 
theologists as the cause, and sole cause of the marine 
deposits, so observable and so numerous, on our pre- 
sent continents ; but if the flood were universal as to 
all that were doomed to perish for their unrighteous- 
ness and sin, this seems to be as much as the Scriptures 
require. This is no new idea, and therefore no eva- 
sion. In the Origines Sacra of the very learned Bishop 
Stillingfleet, published in 1709, I find the following- 
passage : " It is very evident that the flood was uni- 
versal as to mankind; but from thence follows no ne- 
cessity at all of asserting the universality of it as to 
the globe of the earth, unless it be sufficiently proved 
that the whole earth was peopled before the flood, 
which I despair of ever seeing proved V In another 
place we have the following question, by the same 
learned author : " What reason can there be to extend 
the flood beyond the occasion for it, which was the 
corruption of mankind ?" 

In M. de la Fite's introductory remarks to his re- 
publication of De Luc's Geological Letters, he cites 
Le Clerc, very much to same purpose 2 ; <fi Consen- 
tiunt quidem omnes, diluvium eatenus universale fuisse, 

1 Origines Sacrae, Book III. Chap. IV. §. 3. 

3 Vossius and Mabillon are also mentioned as supporters of the same 
opinion. The former at the risk of having his books condemned as 
heterodox by the Assembly of Cardinals at Rome. 

H 5 



154 



JOSEPHUS AND PHILO, 



quatenus totum orbem habitatum oppressit, univer- 
sum que humanum genus, exempta Noachi familia, eo 
interiit." The expression of Joseph us in the first 
Book of his Antiquities, as nearly as possible de- 
scribes the fact to have been as stated ; " He turned 
the dry land into sea," 1 says he, " and thus were all 
these [wicked] men destroyed." Moses, it is said, 
was no philosopher ; then it is not reasonable that his 
credit should be affected, by his having asserted, in 
his account of the catastrophe of the Deluge, that 
" all the high hills that were under the whole heaven 
were covered," for unless he had known, which it is 
certain he could not have known philosophically, that 
the earth was a spherical body, the expression, 
" under the whole heaven," might, as M. de Luc 
has in his sixth letter justly observed, imply only 
the whole horizon of the inhabited lands. 

Mr. Lyell speaks of Quirini, who wrote, De Testaciis 
Fossilihus Mus. Septaliani, in the year 1677, as <s The 
first writer who ventured to maintain that the univer- 
sality of the Noachian cataclysm ought not to be in- 
sisted upon." The utmost we should say, is, that it 
need not be insisted upon, according to the authorities 
just cited, and to whom may be added Bishop Clayton, 

So far then from the marine exuviae discoverable on 
our continents and islands, and which, as Cuvier has 
observed, abound every where, being deposited there 
by the waters of the Noachian Deluge, it seems to be 
by many writers considered more probable that they 
were deposited at the bottom of ancient seas, long 
before the Deluge, and only brought to light, when 

1 eig QaXaaaav ttjv rj-trsipov ixeTej3aXs. Philo, hfis some expressions 
very striking, who speaks, not only of a sinking beneath the waters, but 
of a parting or breaking off, as it were.— $1 A. IOYA. 7repi Aj3pafi. 241. 



HEBREW HYPERBOLES. 



155 



by the sinking of ancient continents, the sea rushed 
in and abandoned its former bed ; and in this view of 
things, De Luc's anti-chaotic opponents Mr. Perm 
and Mr. Fairholme perfectly concur ; supporting 
their opinions, as well as M. de Luc, with much 
learned criticism, on the original denunciation, Gen. 
ix. 11, and on St. Peter's subsequent account of 
the catastrophe. Notice is very fairly taken of the 
hyperbolical use of language amongst the Jews, in- 
stances of which might be produced without end, 
not from the Old Testament only, but the New. St. 
Peter, however, seems to have put some limitation on 
his own expressions, applicable to the subject in 
hand ; where he qualifies as it were, the general 
expression, 2 Peter iii. 6, 6 tots koctjuloq, " The world 
that then was," and which "perished by the flood," 
by calling it in another place, fcooyxoc aaefiajv, " The 
world of the ungodly?' I am not meaning to decide 
upon the question myself, for I am quite persuaded 
that the Deluge was sufficiently universal to answer 
all the ends of a divine correction, but the above 
expressions, do certainly appear to correspond very 
much with the universality contemplated by Bishop 
Stillingfleet, Le Clerc, Vossius, &c. as simply co-ex- 
tensive with the corruption of mankind. 

Geologically, it may be said only to affect the ques- 
tion concerning the submersion of ancient continents, 
and the comparatively recent elevation of the present 
continents, as the post-diluvian inheritance of the 
sons of Noah ; including of course the further question 
relative to the natural chronometer supposed to be 
indicative of such a course of events, and deci- 
sively so. 

I am rather surprised that one piece of criticism 
h 6 



156 



SCRIPTURE TERMS. 



should have escaped observation upon this occasion, 
I mean the force of certain terms both in Hebrew 
and Greek, often put for the whole earth, and the 
ivhole world, but with an express reference to a certain 
portion only, more or less, of its inhabited parts. As 
for instance, Luke ii. v. 1. where it is asserted to 
have been the decree of Csesar Augustus, that " all 
the world should be taxed," though it must have 
meant no more than all parts of the Roman empire. 
Now the expression here used is oiKOVfievt], a term 
by its very derivation, more applicable to the dwellers 
upon the earth, than to the earth alone. It is a term 
very commonly used by the seventy, the Hebrews 
employing the term b2H exactly in the same manner \ 
The following passage from one of the fathers of the 
Christian Church, after what has been said, will not 
appear out of place. " Listen !" says St. Chrysostom, 
" the deluge was the common wreck of the inhabited 
land;" to koivov rrjc OIKOYMENHS vavayiov. 

Mr. Fairholme in his remarks on the deluge, in addi- 
tion to other authorities, has cited a very curious pas- 
sage, from the apocryphal book of Enoch, referred to in 
the Epistle of Jude, ver. 14, and judged to be lost, but 
discovered of late years by Mr. Bruce in Abyssinia, 
and translated from the Ethiopic by the present Arch- 
bishop of Cashel, who obligingly sent me a copy, and 
I have it now lying before me. As Mr. Fairholme's 

1 In writing my book, on the Plurality of Worlds, many years ago, 
I had particular occasion to investigate the proper force and meaning of 
all the words in Scripture used to express the earth or the world, and was 
able to make out to the satisfaction of many competent judges, that their 
power and compass is such, as by analogy, easily and without any force 
being put upon them, to apply in some of the sublimest passages of 
Scripture, as well to other inhabited earths, worlds, or planets, as to 
this. 



THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 



157 



book stands a chance of becoming better known than 
my own, I shall forbear to introduce the passage here, 
but having this occasion to mention the work referred 
to, I cannot help observing that being undoubtedly 
written by a Jew, and before the appearance of Christ 
in the flesh, it asserts in plain terms his pre-existence, 
as Son of God and Son of man, contrary to the assump- 
tion of those who call themselves Unitarians, and who 
have generally maintained, that no Jew of any age, ever 
held such an opinion; a circumstance, the learned 
editor of the Book of Enoch, as well as myself, had 
long ago occasion to know, though we had not at that 
time this strong proof of the opposite fact to produce 1 . 
The history of man as a religious, as well as rational 
being, is so connected with the character of our 
Saviour upon earth, as shown in a former part of this 
work, that I could not refrain from noticing a circum- 
stance, so highly interesting, as a Jewish testimony in 
favour of our Lord's divinity. 

Whether the Noachian deluge were strictly universal 
or not so, it is extremely possible that at that period, 
many animals now found in a fossil state, became 
extinct. The Mosaic history speaks of great changes 
having taken place in the condition of man, and why 
may it not have been the same with regard both to 
animals and vegetables. The longevity of the ante- 
diluvian patriarchs appears to have been known by 
tradition to the Pagan world ; and geology announces 
great changes to have taken place in the vegetable 
and animal kingdoms, and would fain assign the 
exact epochs of such changes ; but in this surely she 

1 See Archbishop Lawrence's Critical Reflections on the Unitarian 
Version of the New Testament, and Nares's Remarks on the same, 
1810, 1811. 



158 



EXTINCT ANIMALS, &C. 



may be deceived. As to changes of temperature and 
climate, which could not fail to affect both animals 
and vegetables, Mr. Lyell has written largely upon 
the subject, and with great ingenuity shown, how 
much may depend on the variations of land and sea, 
in particular localities, and as differently proportioned 
the one to the other. 

We have certainly no reason to be startled at any 
scientific discoveries that announce great changes to 
have taken place in time past ; for we read of great 
changes in the Bible, and more perhaps than we are 
in the habit of attending to. Geology indeed tells us, 
that our race did never co-exist with assemblages of 
animals and plants, of which all the species are ex- 
tinct 1 ; and Professor Playfair particularly observes, 
that " a change in the animal kingdom seems to be 
a part of the order of nature, and is visible in instances 
to which human power cannot have extended." Then 
I apprehend, as human creatures, we need not in 
reality care much about such changes, or such animals, 
if they had nothing to do with us, why should we have 
any thing to do with them ? 

Professor Ure, in his system of geology, seems to 
think that many powerful and ferocious animals were 
providentially allowed to perish at the time of the 
deluge, as inconsistent with the more general disper- 
sion of mankind, and contracted supply of food and 
herbage after the flood, and why not, in consideration 
also of the altered state of man ? Why may we not 
suppose that some of the hideous animals, which the 
comparative anatomists have found for us, may have 
been more suitable to the very corrupt state of the 



1 Lyell, i. 154. 



PROPHETIC DENUNCIATIONS. 



159 



ante-diluvian population, than to ourselves, corrupt as 
we are ; and been suffered to co-exist in the way of 
correction and punishment, to annoy, plague, harass, 
and alarm, those sinful, incorrigible generations of 
men ? At periods, not quite so bad perhaps, though 
bad enough, how frequently do we read, in the pro- 
phetic denunciations of punishment for sin, apostasy, 
idolatry, &c. of the sinner and all belonging to him, 
being delivered over as a prey to wild animals ? Thus, 
Isaiah describes the " day of the Lord's vengeance, 
and the year of recompences for the controversy of 
Zion." 

" It shall lie waste ; none shall pass through for 
ever and ever. But the cormorant and the bittern 
shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall 
dwell in it. Thorns shall come up in her palaces; and 
it shall be an habitation for dragons. The wild beasts 
of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the 
island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow ; the screech- 
owl also shall rest there ; and the great owl make her 
nest; and the vultures be gathered together." And 
in another place we read, " their houses shall be full 
of doleful creatures, owls shall dwell there, and satyrs 
dance there." 

Let us only in imagination, substitute for the cor- 
morants, bitterns, owls, ravens, dragons, wild beasts of 
the desert, satyrs, screech-owls, vultures, and doleful 
creatures, in the above sublime denunciations, some 
of our fossil acquaintance, as the several species of 
Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs, (one of which, the dolicho- 
deirus, was more than twenty feet long) the long- 
beaked and short-beaked Gavials, the Megalosaurs, 
the Pterodactyls, and a few Pachydermata, such as 
the Pal&otheria, Lophiodonta, Anaplotheria, Anthra- 
12 



160 



GIANTS IN THE EARTH. 



cotheria, Cheropotami, &c. &c. and we might bless our- 
selves that we should happen to be, at the least, post- 
diluvians. 

Having myself travelled as it were into the region 
of conjectures and suppositions as to things past, I 
hope I shall not be thought to be trifling with the 
Scriptures, if I offer a few more remarks on the ante- 
diluvian condition of the globe. Many of the fossil 
vegetables and animals discovered in our strata, are 
found to be of such magnitude, as to be distinctly 
called gigantic, comparatively, that is, with recent 
specimens ; now every body knows, that in the fourth 
verse of the sixth chapter of the Book of Genesis, the 
following passage occurs, " There were giants in the 
earth in those days." Some actually read monsters, 
but I am inclined to think they were human monsters, 
i. e. monsters in wickedness. As however the times 
referred to, were in truth the very times of Enoch, 
so lately mentioned, I am induced to copy what is 
said of those giants or monsters in the lately recovered 
Book of Enoch. 

Chap. vii. 11. " And the women conceiving brought 
forth giants. 12 Whose stature was each three 
hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labour 
of men produced, until it became impossible to feed 
them. 13 When they turned against men in order 
to devour them ; and began to injure birds, beasts, 
reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, 
and to drink their blood, 15 Then the earth reproved 
the unrighteous" 

In another Chapter of this ancient and. curious 
Book, occur the two following verses. " In that day 
shall be distributed for food, two monsters, A female 
monster, whose name is Leviathan, dwelling in the 



MONSTERS, &C. 



161 



depths of the sea, above the springs of waters ; and a 
male monster, whose name is Behemoth, which pos- 
sesses, moving on his breast, the invisible wilderness." 
6 4 These two monsters are by the power of God pre- 
pared to become food, that the punishment from God 
may not be in vain." 

I expect to have occasion to speak elsewhere of the 
sublime manner in which these two extraordinary 
animals are described in the Book of Job. In the 
above extract, they are decidedly considered as ante- 
diluvian monsters; which considering the little we 
know of them to this day, is a fact of some importance. 
As far as regards ourselves they appear to be of an 
extinct race, and we therefore need not care much 
about them ; but whether they are done with for ever 
is another question. Geologically perhaps not ; we are 
at least told, that in the order of things, on which it 
is become so fashionable to place no ordinary reliance, 
they actually may come again ; not only Leviathan 
and Behemoth, but all the animals with long Greek 
names, buried alive or dead, before any such place as 
Greece was ever heard of. I am even able, on excel- 
lent authority, to tell posterity (if the world will be 
civil enough to preserve for ages to come the little 
Book I am writing) the very season when such an 
event may be looked for ; namely, " in the summer of 
the great year, or geological cycle," when by an in- 
crease of temperature, tree ferns, and arborescent 
grasses shall again predominate over the dicoty- 
ledonous plants of our present temperate regions. 
For " then," says Mr. Lyell, " might those genera of 
animals return, of which the memorials are preserved, 
in the ancient rocks of our continents. The huge 
Iguanodon" (of which more hereafter) " might re- 



162 



buffon's system. 



appear in the woods, and the Ichthyosaur in the sea, 
while the Pterodactyle 1 might flit again through um- 
brageous groves of tree ferns ; coral reefs might be 
prolonged beyond the arctic circle, where the whale 
and the narval now abound ; turtles might deposit 
their eggs on the sand of the sea beach, where now 
the walrus sleeps, and where the seal is drifted on the 
ice-floe." 

Mr. Lyell only indeed tells us how all this might 
be, and under what circumstances, and at what time 
it might perhaps happen ; but as it could not be, with- 
out great increments of heat, we should seem to have 
a resource in Buffon's more promising assurances, 
that we are constantly getting cooler, and by no 
means hotter. That our planet which came more 
than red hot from the sun, has in fact been cooling 
ever since, and will continue to do so, till the ex- 
tremity of cold shall bring on annihilation. How far 
things may at this time be from the very comfortable 
rest and repose of absolute annihilation, I cannot pre- 
tend to say, it will depend on the fraction remaining 
to be worked out, or cooled down, of about 720 cen- 
turies ; for as it required, we are told, 72,000 years 
to bring it to a proper temperature for the sustenance 
and growth of animals and vegetables, the same lapse 
of time must take place before it becomes again totally 
unfit for such purposes. 

Speculations of this nature may be amusing, but 

1 A figure of the Pterodactylus Longirostris, may be seen in Blackwood's 
edition of Cuvier's Theory of the Earth. Cuvier very justly observes, 
" Its appearance would be frightful if they occurred alive at the present 
day," However, if they should come back again, iLmay be something 
to know, they are not likely to be much bigger than a thrush, or a very 
large bat. 



DEMAILLET. 



163 



surely they are too amusing to be dangerous. Who 
would think that Whiston or Woodward, I forget 
which, who supposed the earth to have been a comet, 
could fancy that it was the heat of the comet not 
sufficiently reduced, that excited all the living beings 
to sin ; for which they were all drowned, excepting 
the fishes, whose passions were apparently less vehe- 
ment ; had we all continued fishes or inhabitants of the 
sea, as Demaillet thought we once were, how much 
of vice and wickedness might have never been 
known. 

That natural causes are daily operating all around 
us, is clear and certain ; that they must force them- 
selves upon the observation and attention of most 
men is also certain ; that they are in the highest 
degree fit objects of the scrutiny and investigation of 
all lovers and promoters of science cannot for a 
moment be doubted ; nor in the present highly ad- 
vanced and advancing state of science, need we per- 
haps be distrustful of any thing, but the propensity 
to tell us more of things, past or future, than the 
generality of persons can want to know, or science 
itself can reasonably be expected to tell us. The 
surface of the earth bears witness, as far as we can 
look, to great disturbances. " It appears," says the 

m elegant author of the mechanism of the heavens, 
" from the marine shells found on the tops of our 
highest mountains, and in almost every part of the globe, 
that immense continents have been elevated above 
the ocean, which ocean must have engulfed others." 
I have shown that the Noachic deluge is judged by 
many to have been a catastrophe of this very nature. 
Buffon considered the sinking of continents to be so 

probable, as to attribute to such a catastrophe, the 



]64 



god's moral government 



Mediterranean and other inland seas, the islands 
therein being tops of mountains not wholly sub- 
merged ; and it may be added, that Diodorus Siculus, 
Strabo, and other ancient writers, decidedly thought 
there had been a time when the Mediterranean did 
not exist. 

The question still remains, what revolutions and 
changes of this description have been brought about 
by natural causes, operating according to the order of 
things, without the special and immediate interposi- 
tion of providence ; and what have taken place, not 
merely for natural ends and purposes, but to ac- 
complish some great end of God's moral government 
of the world, with which as individuals, we have 
evidently, in point of time, but little connection, and 
as human beings, by all accounts, (geological as 
well as theological) not much more. This, I con- 
fess, prevents my taking such interest as some seem 
to do, in the calculations of modern geologists, when 
they speak and write so confidently of the lapse of 
ages, of myriads, nay millions of ages ; telling us all 
the while, not in direct terms, but evidently by im- 
plication, that Moses could not possibly have known, 
that the human race was comparatively a recent in- 
troduction, otherwise than by revelation from the 
Fountain of all knowledge, and the Source of all 
existences. 

I confess, I have long been at a loss to comprehend, 
why geologists should seem so anxious to make the 
world, globe, or in fact planet on which we dwell, so 
exceedingly old, as they represent it to be, without 
the smallest attempt, as far as I can understand the 
matter, to place it in a more important point of view, 
than as the habitation exclusively of only the inferior 



OF THE WORLD, &C. 



165 



orders of living beings, from the Mollusca tribes to the 
Mastodons, and Mammoths, &c. nothing like the 
faculty of reason, or gift of speech appearing amongst 
them all ; surely this is calculated to make us expect, 
that the introduction of the human race, whenever it 
happened, would be marked as an event of quite a 
superior description, and so announced, as to convey 
to our minds the strongest impressions of God's im- 
mediate and special interposition ; for I cannot bring 
myself to look upon man as a mere development, and 
therefore feel myself, as others should do, greatly 
indebted to Mr. Lyell, for taking our part against 
Lamark, who would have made, as is well known, 
nothing but apes, and monkeys, and ourang-outangs of 
us ; or even worse, a mere expansion of organic par- 
ticles. Dr. Macculloch, speaking of Lamark? s system, 
is puzzled to say whether it were the effect of Epi- 
curism, disease, or imbecility. He acknowledges that 
Lamark was accounted in his time a great naturalist. 
" It might be so," he adds, " in empty shells." 

I will acknowledge, that I was at first rather 
startled to find that apes and monkeys were missing 
from our ancient strata x , as well as man, fearful that 
it might lead to a suspicion that if not identical, they 
were, as a link in the chain of beings, so decidedly 
next to man, as almost to belong to the same type 
of organization ; but upon further consideration it ap- 
peared to me probable, that apes and monkeys might 
be expressly designed to show how near to the human 
species organization might ascend, and yet remain as 
far below it, for want of the higher faculties with 

1 " Not a single bone of a quadrumanous animal has ever yet been 
discovered in a fossil state." Lyell : but the fossil reliquiae of tree animals 
in general are, I believe, very rare. 



168 



SUPERIORITY OF MAN. 



which man is endowed, as any of the Mollusca or 
Testaceous tribes ; for this actually is the fact, though 
people in general may not always perceive it. On 
the contrary, most persons I verily think, are inclined 
to shudder at the organized resemblance, not con- 
sidering that, after all, this ugly and offensive image 
of man, is as wide apart from the intelligent image of 
God, as earth from the heaven of heavens. 

When this is duly reflected upon, we shall learn the 
better to appreciate the knowledge displayed by 
Moses, of the wide distinction between our species, 
and all creatures merely animal; we shall learn to 
entertain more exalted ideas of the spiritual nature 
of man, and of the perfectibility, not merely of his 
earthly talents, which must be obviously confined 
within very narrow limits ; but of his very nature and 
being, when the corruptible body in which he now 
appears, shall have put on incorruption, when from 
mortal he shall have become immortal, death itself 
being swallowed up in the victory of our Lord Jesus 
Christ : such are the prospects of man theologically, 
and let me add, Mosaically ; for Moses foretold this 
victory and it has come to pass. Death is swallowed 
up ; "we shall not all sleep," in the graves to which 
we are hastening, but " we shall all be changed." 
Human creatures there are indeed so heedless of these 
great privileges and distinctions, as seemingly to pre- 
fer to live the life of the brutes that perish ; but let 
such persons understand, that the refuge of perishing 
is not open to them ; these also shall be " changed" 
indeed, but not " to the image of the heavenly," to 
an image, I fear, worse than the earthy, in its most 
abject state of brutislmess and despair ! 



PART V. 



It used formerly to be regarded as a very plausible 
objection to the Mosaic history, that it seemed to 
assign so small an antiquity to our globe or system, 
as to be scarcely consistent with the infinite majesty 
of God. Here then geologists may appear to have 
stepped in, very much to the relief of revelation from 
so weighty a charge, especially such of them, as do 
not consider their boundless calculations to be in- 
consistent with the sacred history of man; and in 
truth, myriads and myriads of ages must go a great 
way to satisfy the minds of those who think the 
world too new (according to Moses) to be the work 
of God ; but what can be new or old in the eyes of 
an eternal Being ? And have we no instances in 
nature, of the possibility, not to say probability, of 
a new creation of a world or worlds ? Most men of 
education must know by this time, that the loss of 
stars noticed in ancient catalogues, as well as the ap- 
pearance of new ones, have led very eminent and 
pious astronomers to the conjecture, that in the course 
of God's providential government of the universe, 
some systems are from time to time dissolved, and 
others called into being; and that it may continue 
so till the period fixed for the final consummation of 
all things. 

I shall state the fact, and the reasoning upon it in 



168 



DISAPPEARANCE OF STARS. 



the words of an eminent astronomer, Professor Vince, 
of Cambridge. 

" The total disappearance of a star, may probably 
be the destruction of its system, and the appearance 
of a new star, the creation of a new system of planets ;" 
and in another place, " the disappearance of some 
stars may be the destruction of that system, at the 
time appointed by the Deity for the probation of its 
inhabitants ; and the appearance of new stars may be 
the formation of new systems, for new races of beings 
then called into existence to adore the works of their 
Creator. Thus we may conceive the Deity to have 
been employed for endless ages, forming new systems 
of beings to adore him, and transplanting those beings 
already formed into happier regions, where they may 
have better opportunities of meditating on his works ; 
and still rising in their enjoyments, go on to con- 
template system after system through the boundless 
universe." 

I have no objection to " endless ages," and "bound- 
less space," when associated with such objects as the 
Professor mentions. I mean for rational and intelligent 
beings fixed periods of probation, and the prospect of 
transplantation into happier regions ; all this is consist- 
ent with what we know of that superior race of beings 
before our eyes, and already in existence upon the 
earth, but whose faculties, so far from being altogether 
earthly, find not scope or time enough here for their 
full display, if at all advanced beyond the common rate 
of intellectual improvement. Thus, Newton was obliged 
to leave many questions unresolved; a large "legacy 
of research l ," as it has been lately most happily ex- 

1 Sir John Herschel's Discourse, &c. 



QUERIES, &C. 



169 



pressed, for want of time ; and Bacon only lived to 
light the torch which was to guide those who should 
come after him, into the way of truth. 

" It is beyond dispute," says Professor Robinson, 
" that several stars in the catalogues of Hipparchus, 
of Ulugh Beigh, of Tycho Brahe, and even of 
Flamstead, are no more to be seen: they are gone 
and have left no trace" My friend Mr. Gleig, in 
his History of the Bible, (1830) very naturally asks, 
how is this to be accounted for, and what is become 
of them ? 

" Is it not reasonable," says he in reply, " to suppose, 
that those stars which have certainly disappeared, were 
the luminous centres of such systems as our own, and 
that having served the purpose for which they were 
formed, they are now reduced to that chaotic state in 
which the sacred historian assures us, that the solar 
system was, when c the earth was without form and 
void, and darkness upon the face of the deep,' and 
that when it shall seem good to the Divine architect, 
the matter of which they are composed may again be 
restored to beauty and regularity of form ? Nor is the 
incontestible fact to be passed over, in the considera- 
tion of this theory, that new stars are continually 
appearing in the heavens. May not these be the 
restoration to order of systems which had formerly 
been reduced to chaos, and thereby rendered invisible \ 

1 1 have put the word invisible in italics, because though this may 
account indeed for their disappearance, as far as our instruments can 
reach, it may be doubted whether they do or do not continue in ex- 
istence. Professor Robinson speaks of their having left no trace, and 
Sir John Herschel's expression is quite as strong, who writes of " the 
disappearance of several stars from the heavens, so completely as to 
have left no vestige discernible even by powerful telescopes." Now if 
whole systems may, by the will of God, be withdrawn, in the course of 

1 



170 



SYSTEMS COMPARED. 



so that the process of forming and destroying worlds, 
may have been carried on from the beginning, and 
may be continued through all eternity, according to 
the will of the Supreme Creator and Governor of the 
universe, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and whose 
eternal Son has declared, £ My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work.'" 

It may be thought that this system of a destruction 
and renovation of worlds, rather countenances the 
opinion of our modern geologists, than otherwise ; but 
the difference is very considerable. In the one case, 
we may be said to have obtained almost ocular de- 
monstration, that all the planetary systems in the 
universe, believed to be, as well as our own planet, 
the abodes of rational and intellectual inhabitants, 
have their beginnings and their endings, as such, at 
the will of God, having no other permanency than his 
sustaining hand. The other systems in many in- 
stances profess to discover no beginning nor any 
ending ; but to find in the common course of nature, 
proofs of the lapse of endless ages past, and a fair 
prospect of the like to come. 

The former system speaks of periods of chaotic 
darkness, induced or removed^ as it may please the 
Almighty, in fulfilment of his own special purposes, 
and for moral ends, connected with his providential 
government of the universe. 

The other system contemplates no changes, incon- 
sistent with the common course and order of nature, 
or for any ends and purposes except such as are 
purely physical. To destroy piecemeal existing con- 
time, while others are brought to light, there can be no absolute ob- 
jection made, to the low date of our own orb or system, supposing it to 
be actually a new creation. 



INTRODUCTION OF MAN. 



171 



tinents, and prepare others, in perpetual succession, 
to arise from the bottom of the sea, apparently leaving 
everything to the blind agency of fire and water. 

Lastly, considering that the institutes of Menu, 
have been appealed to by geologists in support of 
the doctrine of a destruction and renovation of worlds, 
as the " Divine Soul," and " Supreme Essence," shall 
happen to be in a state of repose or watchfulness, how 
much more exhilarating is it, to be reminded in the 
extract above, that " He who keepeth Israel, does 
neither slumber nor sleep." Ps. cxxi. 

Of the reduction of our own planet, or system, into 
order, from a chaotic or invisible state, we have 
a regular historical account ; and it would certainly 
seem, had no comparative anatomist interposed, that 
this change had been, by the will of God, entirely 
designed to answer the purposes of man ; to render 
the superficial parts of the globe subservient to his 
uses, and accommodated to his wants ; and that he would 
have been accordingly introduced into it as soon as it 
was ready for him, and with some more observances 
and formalities than the fishes, cattle, birds, beasts, and 
creeping things, instead of coming as it were, ac- 
cidentally upon the stage, with little more ceremony 
than Punch in a puppet-show. It should be remem- 
bered, or understood, that among the chief praises be- 
stowed on geology, by a northern professor of dis- 
tinguished name, this is one, that it " even instructs us 
in the earliest history of the human species." It 
certainly does so, but I think too much in the way 
of a mere organic development. 

The following is the account we have given us of 
man's first appearance in the levels near Lewes in the 
county of Sussex : — 

i 2 



172 



LEWES LEVELS. 



" The levels near Lewes afford so interesting an 
illustration of the silting up of the disrupted valleys 
of the chalk, during a comparatively very recent period, 
that we subjoin the following summary of the sequence 
of events which they record. First, there was a salt- 
water estuary peopled for many years by marine tes- 
tacea, identical with existing species, and into which 
some of the large cetacea, as the sea-unicorn, and 
porpoise, occasionally entered. Secondly, the inlet 
grew more shallow, and the water became brackish 
or alternately salt and fresh, so that fresh water and 
marine shells were mingled in the blue argillaceous 
sediment at the bottom. Thirdly, the shoaling con- 
tinued until the river water prevailed, and was no 
longer habitable by marine testacea, but fitted only 
for the abode of fluviatile species and aquatic insects. 
Fourthly, a peaty swamp or morass was formed, into 
which trees, and terrestrial animals, as deer, were 
occasionally drifted by land floods. Lastly, the soil, 
being only subject to periodical inundations from the 
river, became a verdant plain, through which the 
narrow Ouse now winds its way to the British Channel. 
It is in alluvial deposits of this kind that the remains 
of man first appear. Human skeletons, and the rude 
instruments of a half civilized race, are found asso- 
ciated with the bones of animals, which still inhabit 
this country, and in some instances intermixed with 
the osseous remains of a few species that appear to 
have been extirpated by man." 

All this may be exceedingly true ; I have not in- 
deed a word to say against it, as indicative of the 
comparatively recent introduction of man ; my only 
ground of surprise is, that such an abundance of other 
animals, should have been in occupation of the earth 



NATURAL OBJECTS. 



173 



for such a length of time before man, as geologists 
have concluded to be the case. Almost in the next 
page to the one I have copied, the charms and advan- 
tages of geological inquiries, are said to be rightly 
and most eloquently described by Sir John Herschel, 
in the following words : — 

"To the natural philosopher there is no natural 
objects unimportant or trifling. From the least of 
nature's works he may learn the greatest lessons. 
The fall of an apple to the ground may raise his 
thoughts to the laws which govern the revolutions of 
the planets in their orbits ; or the situation of a pebble 
may afford him evidence of the state of the globe he in- 
habits, myriads of ages ago, before this species became 
its denizens." 

I have printed in italics, only what I found so in 
the original — surely one would think, if the objects 
spoken of are so abundantly interesting to natural 
philosophers, it is a pity they should have been left, 
for myriads of ages, without so much as one natural 
philosopher to take notice of them. What myriads of 
bushels of apples must have fallen to the ground, ac- 
cording to the calculations of geologists, before any 
thing like a Newton appeared, to deduce from thence 
the wonderful laws of gravitation. I cannot bring 
myself to any adequate comprehension of the great 
delight to be found, in learning from a pebble, how 
much (how very much) older, the earth is, than Moses 
has represented it to be. I am in truth not anti- 
quary enough to be very solicitous about the state 
of the planet before Adam. I speak as a theologian, 
but I still hope, free from any actual contempt of 
science, much more of such promoters of science, as 
Sir John Herschel. 

i 3 



174 



THINGS EXHAUSTING. 



I have always thought that in regard to the sacred 
history of the earth, a distinction should constantly be 
drawn, between its creation, and its preparation (if I 
may so say), for the abode and uses of man. The 
body of the planet may be of greater antiquity, than 
its present variegated surface, which is all we occupy ; 
that surface supplies us with a number of things that 
are renewable ; but some things of which we make 
constant use, are not so renewable, as to induce the 
belief that our earthly accommodations were designed 
to last beyond some fixed and approaching period. I 
speak of man in general. 1 cannot pretend (being 
neither " a gnome," nor an " Umbriel," nor a " dusky 
melancholy sprite V') to know what is passing at the 
bottom of the sea, where geologists tell us fresh conti- 
nents are preparing to succeed those on which we 
dwell, when the latter shall be thoroughly worn out ; 
but it seems to me that the last dwellers upon the 
present continents may be much inconvenienced, by 
waiting for such renewals in the common course of 
nature 2 , there being many articles of great use and 
value more quickly exhaustible, than will suit with 
the progress of such slow causes as are to reduce all 
our rocks and mountains, to the last stage of disinte- 
gration. 

1 See Mr. Lyell's judicious remarks on the need of discretion in pre- 
tending to judge of things out of sight, vol. i. chap. v. 

2 We inhabit about a fourth part of the surface of the planet, and that 
portion is, almost exclusively, the theatre of decay and not of reproduc- 
tion" — Lyell. 

In an essay by a writer, who professes to follow Mr. Lyell, I find 
the following seemingly inconsistent passage. - " Thus, on the one 
hand, the globe is continually being changed, and on the other, the 
work of regeneration is going on in about perhaps an equal ratio." — 
Fraser's Magazine, No. II ; and is said of the surface of the globe. 



ANCIENT RICHES OF THE EARTH. 



175 



Recently as man was introduced, among the inha- 
bitants of this planet, according to geologists, many 
changes have taken place, relative to what may be 
called the inches of the earth. I am, of course, in- 
tending to speak of only one hemisphere ; not of the 
subsequently discovered continents of America. I 
would also wish to add, that I do not pretend to ac- 
count for the precise circumstances of those ancient 
continents, as historically recorded. 

It is proposed as a question, in the Lettres de 
Quelques Juifs a M. Voltaire, whether there was not 
formerly more gold and silver in the world than now, 
p. 397 ; and in a note p. 407, the account of A garth a- 
cides, preserved by Photius, of the immense quantity 
of gold amongst the Alileans and Cassandrins, in the 
southern parts of Arabia, is particularly noticed. 
Dean Prideaux has given us the same extract in his 
attempt to settle the true situation of Ophir, ( Conna- 
tio?i f Part I. v. 1,) where also may be seen the im- 
mense amount of gold furnished by David for the 
building of the Temple ; but in the fifth book, the 
learned author particularly treats of the superabund- 
ance of gold and silver in those early times, where he 
has occasion to speak of the extravagant sum offered 
by Haman for the destruction of the Jews, Esther 
iii. 9 l . 

It is mentioned of Lucullus, a Roman senator, that 
in one of his halls, which he called Jpollo, he ex- 
pended fifty thousand Roman denarii (which is near 
sixteen hundred pounds of our money), every time he 
supped there ; and he supped there as often as any 

' See Gibbon's Account of the Spanish Mines, worked by the Phoeni- 
cians. Roman Hist. vol. i. chap. vi. 

i 4 



176 



GOLD AND SILVER. 



of the better sort supped with him. Plutarch, who 
mentions this, does not expressly name the coin ; but 
live myriads of sestercii, would come to four hundred 
pounds; prodigious enough for the entertainment of 
only two Roman senators, no more being present at 
the supper particularly alluded to by Plutarch. 

In the southern parts of Arabia referred to by 
Agarthacides, it is supposed that Ophir was situated, 
whence Solomon in one year obtained gold to the 
amount of four hundred and fifty talents, which, re- 
duced to our money, is three million two hundred and 
forty thousand pounds ; but at length these rich mines 
were exhausted. 

It is, however, generally admitted, by those who 
have treated of the origin of arts and sciences, either 
professedly or historically, that the precious metals 
were originally found on the surface of the earth, and 
were procurable in great abundance, without the 
labour of digging for them. They were also employed 
for purposes, for which they were not by nature 
fitted, as for arms, and tools to cultivate the earth. 
See Diod. Sic. Lib. I. 

Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians put gold and 
silver to all sorts of uses; and this was found to be 
the case much more recently, with the Mexicans and 
Peruvians, when the Spaniards first explored their 
country. 

M. Bailly, in his eccentric Letters on the Atlantis of 
Plato, appears to make it an argument of the great an- 
tiquity of his favourite hyperboreans, that arms, and 
tools of brass, and gold, have been found in abund- 
ance near the river Jenisca. Now, besides that the 
want of iron instruments is a direct proof of the little 



IRON SCARCELY KNOWN. 



177 



progress they must have made in metallurgy, if he 
had but turned to the fifth book of Lucretius, he 
would have found, that such has been the progress of 
things from the first ; gold and silver were first used, 
then brass, and lastly iron. Agarthacides indeed, 
so often cited, tells us that the Alileans and Cassan- 
drins, were accustomed to give double the weight of 
gold for iron. 

So far then from such relics as M. Bailly speaks of, 
being any proof of the perfection of the arts in such 
countries, they evince the very contrary ; and to what- 
ever people they may have belonged, so far from being- 
marks of refinement, or of any great degree of perfec- 
tion, they plainly prove them to have been in a com- 
parative state of rudeness, if not in the very infancy 
of civilization. 

And thus, perhaps, what we read of the profuse 
splendour, riches, and copious ornaments of ancient 
buildings, instead of supplying arguments for the 
great antiquity of the earth, may rather serve to de- 
monstrate in a direct manner, the newness of our con- 
tinents, and even serve as a foundation for curious 
calculations, in regard to the duration of our globe, in 
its present habitable state. For that many minerals 
both of use and ornament, are, and have for some 
time been progressively exhausting, we cannot, I 
think, possibly doubt ; no modern argonauts would be 
tempted now to sail to Mingrelia in search of a golden 
fleece. 

But to come to things nearer home. Coals, it is 
well known, have not been in general use many cen- 
turies, and yet some mines are already entirely ex- 
hausted, and forges and manufactories come to an 

i 5 



178 



COAL FIELDS. 



end, that had been erected for the particular local 
advantages of the fuel they supplied \ 

Several small coal fields are said to be exhausting 
so rapidly, that the time will not be very distant when 
that operation is completed. Webster's Lecture on 
Geology. 6£ I may mention," says the author just 
cited, " the coal-field which supplies the neighbour- 
hood of Birmingham with fuel, and which constitutes 
the richness of that part of the country. I inquired 
into the circumstances of its probable duration parti- 
cularly, and was informed that at the rate they were 
then working, it was probable that in two hundred 
years at the furthest that great bed would be worked 
out." Newcastle is fast working out, but there is 
enough there to supply us for five or six hundred 
years, and we need not be afraid therefore of the 
loss of coal. 

" The question has often been asked," Mr. Web- 
ster also remarks, " whether we can conceive it pos- 
sible that coal will be at some time or other exhausted, 
and that involves another question, viz. whether coal 
is now forming ? If coal be now forming there can 
be no fear of its being exhausted ; we know, however, 
of no circumstance to lead us to suppose that coal is 
forming V He makes several remarks in proof of this, 

1 Williams's Mineralogy. Professor Ure was inclined to think that 
the primitive strata of ihe globe, was not the result of deposition as 
Werner held, but so distributed originally by the Author of nature ; and 
he instances the association of iron ore and coal-fields, its flux and 
fuel, &c. 

2 " Peat is formed," says Mr. W., " but peat is not coal, and we do 
not know that it will ever become such." Dr. Macculloch thinks, peat 
is " the preparation for future coal." 

As to metallic veins, the Huttonians suppose them to be filled from 



CONSUMPTION OF METALS. 



179 



but the conclusion he draws is sufficient for our pur- 
poses. 

It was calculated long ago, that in the town of Bir- 
mingham alone, the quantity of gold and silver an- 
nually employed in gilding and plating, and thereby 
disqualified from ever afterwards appearing in the shape 
of those metals, amounted to more than 50,000/. ster- 
ling, equal to the one hundred and twentieth part of the 
whole annual importation of those metals into Europe 
at the rate of six millions a year. Taking Europe and 
America together, it has been more recently calculated 
that about 8,700,000/. of new metal are annually de- 
voted to ornamental and luxurious purposes. 

The geologists will tell us that according to the 
order of things, nature is constantly employed in re- 
pairing her own destructive operations on the face of 
the earth, and that whatever of waste and decay may 
seem to be befalling our present continents, we may 
be sure that there are new continents always pre- 
paring at the bottom of the sea, to serve the purposes 
and administer to the wants of future generations : 
so that if the gold of our Arabia be lost for a time, 
and Birmingham should come to be distressed for 
coals, or through a deficiency of the precious metals, 
for gilding and plating, before long, new Arabias and 
new Birminghams will be raised above the waters of 
the sea, with all necessary accompaniments it may be 
presumed of a fresh supply of coals, gold, and silver ; 
that is, if nature be as much bound to repair the de- 

the mineral regions below granite ; not likely therefore to be renewable 
very easily or quietly, or exactly when a fresh supply may be wanted. 
Perhaps, however, if former continents sunk at the Deluge, and the bed 
of the sea were elevated, the abundance of minerals on or near the sur- 
face of the new continents, might have come from below, as the Hutto- 
nians think. 

i 6 



180 



DECREASE OF ANIMALS. 



structive operation of arts and manufactures, as of her 
own instruments of waste and decay. For the latter 
may be found to be slower causes than the former, 
and if they cannot be made to keep pace with each 
other, all the mines and metallic veins of the present 
continents, maybe exhausted, before all the rocks and 
mountains have been sufficiently reduced to give place 
to the new sub-marine continents. It seems, I say, as 
if such a thing might happen, if the prevailing system 
of decays and renovations be correct. A gentleman 
who writes upon the discoveries of modern geologists, 
in " Fraser's Magazine," observes that "human wants 
in all civilized states increase, and animals decrease in 
the same ratio." Now if this referred only to lions, 
bears, tigers, hyaenas, &c, it would be all very de- 
sirable, but the instances he gives, amount to absolute 
losses; for the demand for furs he tells us, has 
thinned the otters, the martins and the polecats. The 
haunts of the mallard, the snipe, the red-shank, the 
bittern, the lapwing, and the curlew, have been 
drained ; the egret and the crane are only occasional 
visitants of Scotland ; and the bustards of Wiltshire 
and Dorsetshire are no longer visible. This is all 
very true; and if the crumbling of our continents does 
not go on fast enough, some of our posterity must ex- 
pect to live under great deprivations. Furs have 
been mentioned as likely to be lost, to fence against 
the cold in northern climates, without a fresh supply 
of polecats and otters ; but what would be a very bad 
hearing for future epicures, nothing seems more likely 
to fail, than a proper supply of venison. " The stag, 
the fallow deer, and the roe must have been extinct," 
we are told, before this, " but for private pastures." 
Being very anxious, however, to do no injustice to 



AN END PROBABLE. 



181 



any writer upon such subjects, I shall copy this gen- 
tleman's own view of the situation of things. 44 The 
geological monuments of former eras tend to afford us 
some insight into the future destinies of the inhabit- 
ants of the earth ; and in the contemplation of these 
we find that an apparent confusion and endless variety, 
are, in reality, the effects of a system of things per- 
fectly uniform, and obedient to fixed and permanent 
laws, of which nature is the agent, and the Deity the 
omnipotent director and first great cause, operating 
upon our planet — a small individual globe amongst 
myriads of others which constitute the mechanism of 
the universe." This is all very well, if we had as human 
beings nothing to do with the beginnings and endings 
of particular systems ; our own of course for one. 

Those who have been taught to look to beginnings 
and endings, such as the Scriptures, in no obscure 
terms, give intimation of, may be disposed to think 
from the accounts above, that the surface of the earth 
was designed to be so exclusively subservient to the 
uses of man ; that as through the history of the inven- 
tion of arts and sciences, we may very regularly arrive 
at a proper beginning of things, not very remote, so 
as our continents gradually wear out, we may prog- 
nosticate the approach of some determinate end ; de- 
terminate that is as a consummation of human con- 
cerns always to be expected, though not determinate 
in point ot time ; on the contrary, likely to steal upon 
us imperceptibly, " as a thief in the night," 1 Thess. 
v. 2, or more awfully, with the 44 suddenness of light- 
ning," Matthew xxiv. 27. 

It is better to know this, than to run any risk of 
being misled, by a reliance on 44 countless ages," past 
or to come, and only guessed at, as the results of 
certain discoveries of organic remains, in the strata of 



182 



ANTE-DILUVIAN PERIOD. 



the globe — discoveries indeed indisputable as far as 
they go, that is, as far as comparative anatomy can 
enable us, from a few bones, and due attention to the 
characters and habits of different species, to infer, the 
complete existence of animals extinct ; but may there 
not be, I ask it with due submission, an error in the 
computation of time ? The existence of our race can 
be traced back, at the lowest calculation, nearly 6,000 
years, and it may be more than 7,000; of which last 
number, according to Theophilus Antiochenus, cited 
in the second part of this work, 2,242 years must 
have elapsed before the Deluge, in which time surely 
the sea must have been receiving large deposits, and 
" furnishing receptacles for the remains of marine ani- 
mals and plants inhabiting the ocean above them, as 
well as for similar spoils of the land washed down into 
its bosom" — Herschel. Two thousand two hundred 
and forty years are certainly nothing to compare with 
countless ages; but if we are inhabiting the bed of the 
ante-diluvian sea, many things that have been brought 
to light, one would think, might have been deposited 
there, in the short course comparatively, of but two 
and twenty centuries. We have abundant proofs that 
many unaccountable things have taken place, as well 
upon the surface of the earth, as below the waters of 
the sea ; and the principal question is, must it have 
required countless ages to accomplish the changes and 
revolutions supposed to be indicated by the fossils 
alluded to ? must we be compelled to concede to the 
force of such suppositions, all that we may have pre- 
viously learned from other sources, of the history of 
the earth and of man ? for it must be recollected, that 
if a succession of countless ages be wanted, to explain 
the phenomena in question, no discovery the geologists 
have yet made can be more wonderful than the fact 



CREATION OF MAN, 



183 



itself, namely, that such a time should have been suf- 
fered to pass, without any display or manifestation of 
the moral attributes of the Deity. That he should 
have infused the " breath of life " into such a multi- 
tude of inferior animals, and during such a lapse of 
time, not created so much as one "living soul," in 
his own image, as a delegated ruler over the inferior 
creation \ 

How very much more sublime, how very much 
more consistent with the brightest attributes of God, 
is the account in Genesis, " And God said, Let us 
make man in our image, after our likeness : and let 
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all 
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth 
on the earth. So God created man in his own image, 
in the image of God created he him ; male and female 
created he them. And God blessed them, and God 
said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish 
the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the 
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And 
God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bear- 
ing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and 
every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding 
seed: to you it shall be for meat. And to every 

1 The Edinburgh Reviewer of Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise ob- 
serves, " What a conceit of naturalism is it to suppose, that it was into 
a mite or moving jelly, that God first breathed the breath of life ;" but 
this has reference to Meckel's remarks on the Infusoria, which he judged 
to be the first-born of animals, Protozoa, as he therefore called them ; but 
the " breath of life," and a " living soul " are very different things, and 
though there is much in the sentiment of the reviewer to approve and 
admire, we are willing to believe that life commenced in the lowest order 
of created beings, as Moses has described. 



184 



BUFFON AND LEIBNITZ. 



beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and 
to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein 
there is life, I have given every green herb for meat : 
and it was so. And God saw every thing that he 
had made, and behold it was very good. And the 
evening and the morning were the sixth day." 

Now there is in the above account a certain con- 
gruity and fitness, which must I think naturally incline 
us to acquiesce in the truth of it. The dominion of 
man " over every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth," whenever the opportunity for exercising such 
dominion exists, is so constantly exhibited before our 
eyes, that it is impossible to doubt, that it is among 
the laws of the Creator that it should be so ; and the 
existence of such living things moving upon the earth 
for a succession of ages, in no instance subject to such 
dominion, presents to the mind, so strange a condition 
of this terraqueous globe, as almost to exceed credi- 
bility. It was one of the points BufFon could not 
give up to Leibnitz. He objected strongly to the notion 
in the Protog&a, that marine animals, notwithstanding 
the shells found in our strata, were created long prior 
to man, and terrestrial animals ; " independent of 
Scripture," he says, "is it not reasonable to think 
that the origin of all kinds of animals and vegetables 
is equally ancient ?" He attributes the magnitude of 
fossil plants and animals, the existence of giants, and 
of many species of animals, in northern climates, and 
finally the extinction of many species, to the greater 
heat of the planet originally. The prayer at the 
beginning of the ninth chapter of the Book of 
Wisdom, expresses a belief in the fact that man was 
placed in the world at the very beginning of the 
present order of things, as a moral ruler over the 



ANIMALS CONTEMPORARY WITH MAN. 185 

subordinate parts of the creation. " O God of my 
fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things 
with thy word and ordained man through thy 
wisdom, that he should have dominion over the crea- 
tures which thou hast made, and order the world 
according to equity, and righteousness, and execute 
judgment with an upright heart." 

It is certainly true that the inferior races of animals 
might exist and occupy the earth, independent of man ; 
but considering the present visible connection between 
them, and the marked utility of almost all that come 
in the way of man, it is not easy to suppose that 
whole races of the former should have been created, 
and actually become extinct, before man appeared 
amongst them. " The wild goats of the rock," " the 
wild ass," and the wild " unicorn ;" " the eagle that 
makes her nest on high ;" " Behemoth," and 66 Le- 
viathan," might long escape subjection, though man 
were on the earth; but even the Almighty himself, 
as represented in the passages of Scripture alluded to, 
contemplates the co- existence of man, in the midst of 
such descriptions of the freedom, power and magnitude 
of certain of the inferior animals, as never can be 
surpassed in grandeur and sublimity. Thus the i( wild 
ass" is wild, because he " scorneth the multitude of the 
city ;" the " unicorn," is represented as difficult to 
tame and render useful, but his adaptation to agri- 
cultural services, if once tamed, and brought " to abide 
the crib," is sufficient proof, that though since judged 
to be an extinct animal, he was contemplated as ex- 
isting with man. The " ostrich," almost deprived of 
the instinctive wisdom common to other animals, is 
described as lifting herself up, not only against the 

1 Calmet reads, " par son Verbe, par son Fils." 



186 ANIMALS CONTEMPORARY WITH MAN. 

horse but his " rider ;" and as to the horse himself, 
man is mixed up with all his glory. The following is 
too remarkable to be passed over. " Behold now 
Behemoth which I made with thee." It may express 
no more than that he was to be found in the parts where 
Job dwelt ; but it is scarcely possible that any of the 
extinct tribes should have exceeded in bulk or strength, 
or even ugliness, Behemoth and Leviathan 1 . If indeed 
the latter was the crocodile and not the whale, it may 
be the megalosaur of geologists, which Cuvier says, 
speaking of Dr. Buckland's discovery, " was a lizard 
of the size of a whale" I know not indeed whether 
it may not have been the iguanodon itself, which is 
judged also to have been of the crocodile or lizard 
tribe, nine feet high and seventy feet long ; and of 
no very agreeable form, bating its magnitude, as 
the sketch below may prove. 




However, according to the Book of Job, even the 
Leviathan, was evidently a contemporary of man 2 ; but 
of what use lizards as big as whales, or such creatures 
as Iguanodons, could be, I am not prepared to state. 

In what I am saying, I am not pretending to 
ascertain the age of the globe itself, as a part of the 

1 See before from the Book of Enoch, part iv. 

2 The Book of Enoch, as I have shown, makes it a contemporary of 
" the giants" that " were in the earth," in the days of Enoch himself; 
suitable companions. 



AGE OF THE EARTH. 



187 



solar system ; I am not pretending to fix the time, 
when, if it were projected from the sun, that pro- 
jection took place ; nor in what state and condition 
it was projected; I am only endeavouring to find out, 
whether man's first occupation of the surface of the 
planet, and his dominion over the other living things 
that move upon the earth, are facts that have been 
historically recorded, or whether they were propounded 
by the author of the Pentateuch so much at random, 
as to be no better, in regard to human concerns, than 
the baseless fabric of a vision, though referred to by 
our Saviour, St. Paul, and St. Peter, as constituting 
the very foundations of Christianity. 

I am not pretending to assert, that the planet was, 
from its first creation, unoccupied, till our own pecu- 
liar race was brought upon the stage ; but looking 
upon the surface of the earth, as a scene of things 
betokening great physical revolutions and catastrophes, 
I cannot but feel disposed to think, that the period 
is ascertainable, at which the preparation, if not the 
actual creation, of the terraqueous portion of the 
planet, for the uses of man, took place and though 

1 Geologists do not deny the fact of preparation in a general point of 
view, but still with very degrading representations of the actual intro- 
duction of man. Thus, one gentleman admits that the first pair of 
human creatures, was introduced, " between the tropics, in a climate 
of perpetual summer, suited to their nakedness ; in accordance with our 
general principle of creation, fruits, herbs, roots, and animals abound 
in this fertile region, so well adapted to man's nature and exigencies. 
The soil brought forth without tillage and animals were not scared by 
the intrusion of colonists at the period of man's first appearance." But 
alas ! all this preparation was only for two arrant barbarians ; for the 
very next passage is, " man's advancement from a state of perfect bar- 
barism to his subsequent social condition must have been gradual." 
I can scarcely fancy that the world could ever have produced, even in 
the compass of thousands of years, myriads of such fools as myself, to 



188 



UNSEARCHABLE THINGS OF GOD. 



not at that period, exempted from future catastrophes 
and changes (such for instance as the deluge), yet 
destined to continue the abode of man, under certain 
circumstances, till some future general breaking up 
again of the superficial parts, or of the whole orb, 
shall terminate maris occupation, and deliver him 
back, as it were, into the hand of God, as a steward 
called to give account of the trust reposed in him 
(for a time), and to be rewarded or punished accord- 
ingly, in other regions of the universe. 

It is upon such general accounts as these, that 
I am anxious to prevent our faith in the Genesis of 
Moses being disturbed, by theories and conceits, the 
actual truth of which, if they should in reality turn 
out to be more than mere theories and conceits, it 
seems impossible to establish, because the real cause 
of all we see, observe, and examine (to use the words 
of one, who above most others, appears to have not 
only seen, but to have observed and examined too), 
will " still remain behind, irremoveable ; the necessary, 
the Eternal, the cause," " which," as we read in Job, 
" doeth great things and unsearchable ; marvellous 
things without number; who giveth rain upon the 
earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields," which 
instance of God's unsearchable doings, is rather re- 
markable, as referring to a branch of natural philo- 
sophy ( meteorology J, confessed to this very day to be 
replete with wonders, almost surpassing, if not entirely 

think and believe it possible, that " God," as the most ancient of ancient 
writers has told us, " created man in his own image, in the image of 
God created he him ; male and female created he them," yet so it is, 
myriads and myriads for what I know, have actually believed the pas- 
sage above, not only to be true, but to convey to the mind of man, a 
truth of great comfort, great grandeur, and great sublimity. 



ARRANGEMENT OF THINGS. 



189 



so, the utmost reach even of modern science *; and yet 
what can be more common, as objects of observation and 
attention, than the rain which God sendeth upon the 
earth, and the water with which he irrigates our fields ? 

If it should be thought, that since the great ad- 
vancement of science, and examinations of the earth 
in particular, which have recently taken place, there 
must be much of habit, in still receiving with a 
degree of unqualified reverence and acquiescence, 
such portions of the Book of Genesis as describe 
what has been commonly called the creation, I am not 
disposed to deny it, if the whole amount of the 
impression be taken into account. In regard to the 
actual creation of things, I conceive the very first 
verse of the first chapter speaks indefinitely 2 of the 
heaven and the earth, and that what follows, refers 
to a period, when all that we see around us, may be 
said to have had a beginning in the way of order, 
arrangement, and accommodation, for the uses of 
man. I am not cosmogonist or geologist enough to 
pretend to bring all natural appearances to the test 
of Scripture ; but I am not willing to let Scripture 
be brought to the test of modern philosophy, at the 
hazard of having Moses accounted a mere myco- 
logist, as in the case of the Jews and Christians of 
Prussia, of whom I have made sufficient mention 
in a former part of my work. Jews must be left to 

1 " The other branches of knowledge which belong to natural philo- 
sophy, as chemistry and meteorology, are as yet imperfect, and perhaps 
infant sciences." — Whewell. 

3 Whiston is judged to be one of the first who ventured to propose 
that the text of Genesis should be interpreted differently from its 
ordinary acceptation, so that the doctrine of the earth having existed 
long previous to the creation of man, might no longer be reputed 
unorthodox. — Lyell i. 39. 



190 



ON THE TEMPTATION. 



act as they please with their own Scriptures, being- 
without such confirmation of the truth of the Mosaic 
history, as all who call themselves Christians, ought 
to feel, and be prepared to acknowledge. 

The history of the first Adam, as is well known, 
began with a temptation to sin on the part of the 
devil. He, through Eve, yielded to the temptation, 
disobeyed the first probationary injunction of God, 
and fell. 

The history of the second Adam begins likewise 
with a temptation on the part of the devil, which 
the second Adam withstood and resisted, thereby 
defying in our nature, and in the same nature 
ultimately overcoming, both sin and Satan ; and it is 
certainly remarkably to our purpose to observe, that 
our Saviour, in the case of his own temptation, in 
every instance of disdain and defiance, refers to the 
" written" word of God ; written, that is, in the Pen- 
tateuch, the work of Moses, long before any thing 
like mythology was heard of; though mythology is 
older than the earliest profane history, properly so 
called. I need not go at large into the subject of 
our Saviour's numerous and express references to the 
Pentateuch, they may be easily found by any body 
who will be at the pains to run his eye down the 
margin of our four Gospels ; and it may be well to 
do so, before he abandons the least particle of his 
faith, in the general credibility of an author, quite as 
much connected, I have no hesitation in saying, with 
Christianity, as with Judaism. It has been accurately 
shown *, that our Saviour and his apostles have cited 
verbatim, as many as twenty-seven passages from the 

1 By Rivet, see Bishop Gray's Key to the Old Testament. 



ANCIENT COMPUTATIONS. 



191 



Book of Genesis alone, and according to the sense 
thirty-eight. 

The historians of the old and new creation, so to 
speak, stand so far apart in the book of God, that 
too much care cannot be taken, to keep up a strong 
sense and impression of their close and direct con- 
nection with each other ; for no building can stand, 
if the foundation be broken up ; and we have ample 
proof, in the suffrage of our Saviour and his apostles 
just referred to, that the foundation of Christianity 
is to be sought for in the writings of Moses. Those 
writings may now be said to have been exposed to 
two sets of objections, very different in their cha- 
racters, but both, in their tendency and effects, chro- 
nological. The history of man has had to encounter 
all the extravagant computations of nations, uncon- 
nected with, and adverse to, the pretensions of the 
Jews; and now the history of the earth, has to 
surmount all the difficulties arising from computations 
of still larger amount, approaching to an eternity, if 
not actually arriving at such a conclusion \ 

I have considered in the first and second part of 
this work, the former set of objections, but some- 
thing may still be added. It is of no use to refer 
to works entirely out of print, otherwise in the notes 
to my Bampton Lectures, much more might be found 
upon the subject, than I have room for here ; having, 
however, shown that a method had been discovered, 
by a writer not particularly friendly to the cause of 

1 Mr. Mantell uses the word eternity, but at all events undertakes 
to assure us, " that the earth has teemed with countless forms of animal 
and vegetable existence, myriads of ages before the creation of the 
human race." I cannot help asking, " Cut bono?" Mr. Mantell's own 
book, I must say, though extremely curious, and properly scientific, 
has not convinced me that his conclusions are just. 



192 YEARS OF DIFFERENT LENGTHS. 



revelation, of reconciling the Indian ages, two of 
them at the least, amounting together, to one million 
two hundred and ninety-six thousand years, with the 
Mosaic computation, and as perhaps the method of 
unravelling such chronological conundrums is not 
very generally known, I shall endeavour to make the 
case a little more intelligible. 

No circumstance seems to be now more settled and 
determined, than that the ancients had years of all 
lengths and descriptions ; of two weeks or fifteen 
days, half a month; of one or two months ; six months, 
&c, thirty or sixty days, &c. ; all these were known in 
India, particularly that of the fortnight, or dark and 
bright halves of the moon. We are told, indeed, that 
in India, both day and year, mean no more than 
the Saros of the Chaldeans, viz. a Revolution \ 

Whether the ancients meant to puzzle or deceive 
those who were to come after them, by concealing 
the exact measurement of the years they wrote of, or 
adopted, certain it is, that in most instances, this was 
the case ; they left it to their successors to find this 
out as they could. At last however a clue was found, 
and it seems to have operated like a master-key to 
open a great abundance of mysteries. It must be 
obvious, that years of days or months, will admit of 
being reduced to solar years, and that a similar plan 
may be pursued with regard to years of any dimen- 
sions less than the solar year. 

The following very simple instance may help to 
show to how great a nicety the method alluded to 
may be made to work. 

Two ancient authors, Callisthenes and Epigenes, 

1 The President Goguet, thinks the Saros ought to be confined to a 
lunar revolution from the Chaldean term Sar, lunaris. 



HERODOTUS. 



193 



are known to have given different accounts of the 
Chaldean observations, the latter making them amount 
to the amazing sum of seven hundred and twenty 
thousand years, the former to only nineteen hundred 
and three. Now 720,000 days make as nearly as can 
be 1971 years; and as Epigenes is held to have been 
sixty eight years posterior to Callisthenes, the ac- 
counts may fairly enough be said to agree ex- 
actly. 

Every body has heard of Herodotus : — when he was 
collecting materials for his history in Egypt, he was 
told by the priests there, that from the time of their 
first king, or priest of Vulcan, till the time of Sethos 1 , 
(in whose time Sennacherib attempted the conquest 
of Egypt), there had been passed 341 generations, 
as many kings and high priests, and 11,340 years, 
reckoning three generations to make up a century; 
in other words, that there had been, in that time, 
three hundred and forty-one kings, and three hundred 
and forty-one chief priests, in three hundred and forty- 
one generations, during a space of 1 1 ,340 years. ( Such 
a concurrence in point of numbers as the President 
Goguet long ago observed, must, at least, have looked 
like imposition.) Whether it was intended as a trick 
upon Herodotus, and his credulous countrymen, does 
not appear, but that they might have practised such a 
deception, without any actual impeachment of their 
veracity appears from this, that it may be made to 
agree with the real truth of things. For, according 
to this account, 100 such years make 3000 days, and 
a generation 1000; so many days the kings or priests 
of Vulcan may be allowed to reign; so 340 gene- 

1 Or Sethon. 

K * 



194 



DIODORUS SICULUS. 



rations, of 1000 days apiece, make up 340,000 days; 
to which, if we add the 200 days which Sethon is said 
to have reigned at the time of Sennacherib's invasion, 
we have 340,200 days, which make up, of years of 
30 days apiece 1 , 11,340, the very number assigned 
by Herodotus. Capellus thinks the epocha whence 
these years are to be reckoned, is from a.m. 2350, 
whence Mephres began to reign in Egypt, from 
which if we number these 340,200 days, or 11,340 
monthly years, which make of Julian years 931, and 
152 days, the number falls a.m. 3282 3 , about which 
time Sennacherib in all probability did actually invade 
Egypt. 

The accounts given us by Diodorus Siculus of Egyp- 
tian antiquities, admit of a like solution, and indeed 
much more might be adduced in proof of the practi- 
cability of thus reconciling ancient and modern comp- 
putations, were not the above instances, as I trust, 
sufficient, without loading my pages with figures. 
Knowing the extravagancies with which the world 
had been amused, from the times of Herodotus, or 
earlier ; and in how many instances the fallacy of 
such claims to antiquity, on the part of many nations, 
had been detected, it is certainly surprising that so 
much attention should have been paid to the Hindu 
Chronology, as is known to have been the case. 
Mr. Mill in his History of British India, makes the 
same remark, and with reason, attributing it entirely 
to the love of the marvellous ; and sure enough there 

1 Plutarch speaking of the Egyptians' great pretensions to antiquity, 
has expressly observed, that they reckoned an infinite number of years 
in their accounts, because they reckoned their months for years. 

2 b.c . 722. — Sethon defeated Sennacherib, B. c. 720. — Bell's Chro- 
nology. 



HINDU EXTRAVAGANCIES. 



195 



never were people more likely to gratify such a pas- 
sion than the Hindus, or eastern nations generally. 
The Burmans, for instance, believe that the lives of 
the first inhabitants of their country lasted one 
assenchii, a period of time of which they give the fol- 
lowing illustration. " If for three years it should rain 
incessantly over the whole surface of this earth, which 
is 1,203,400 junza in diameter, the number of drops 
of rain falling in such a space of time, although far 
exceeding human conception, would only equal the 
number of years contained in one assenchii." 

The Hindus themselves estimate the circumference 
of the globe to be 2,456,000,000 British miles, and 
have invented for their god Brahma, a year composed 
of the multiplication of two thousand ages (each 
of above four millions of our years) by 360. 

Here then we have calculations fully answerable 
to the myriads and myriads of years on which geolo- 
gists insist, as far as the earth is concerned; but we 
look in vain for any history conformable to such 
reckonings. On the contrary, the very ages that 
they call historical, have been shown, by Sir William 
Jones, to be altogether artificial. 

" The duration of historical ages," says he, " must 
needs be very unequal and disproportionate, while 
that of the Indian yugs (or ages) is disposed so regu- 
larly and artificially, that it cannot be admitted as 
natural and probable. Men do not become reprobate 
in a geometrical progression, or at the termination of 
regular periods; yet so well proportioned are the 
yugs, that even the length of human life is diminished 
as they advance from an hundred thousand years in a 
subdecuple ratio; and as the number of principal 
avatars in each decreases arithmetically from four, so 
k 2 



196 



NO HISTORICAL RECORDS. 



the number of years in each decreases geometrically, 
and all together constitute the extraordinary sum of 
four millions three hundred and twenty thousand 
years ; which aggregate multiplied by seventy-one, 
is the period in which every Menu is believed to 
preside over the world. The comprehensive mind of 
an Indian chronologist has no limits; the reigns of 
fourteen Menus are only a single day of Bramha, 
fifty of which have elapsed, according to the Hindus, 
from the time of the creation." Sir William adds, 
"possibly this is only an astronomical riddle 1 ;" 
having in another place taken pains to reduce to 
arithmetical numeration one of the Indian periods, 
that of rudra, Sir William found it to amount to the 
enormous sum of " two quadrillions, five hundred and 
ninety-two thousand millions of lunar years !" 

We read of kings in India who reigned 23,000 
years, nay even 29,793 years; but it is granted that 
except the Puranas, which are full of unconnected 
and incredible fictions, the Hindus are "perfectly 
destitute of historical records 2 ;" even of the Puranas 
Captain Wilford has observed, that if a key should be 
in existence, it is more than probable that the wards 
would be found too intricate to answer any useful pur- 
pose ; and that, in short, " their systems of geography, 
chronology, and history, are all equally monstrous and 
absurd." 

But it was not a mere love of the marvellous, " le 
gout du merveilleux" as M. Bailly calls it, which pro- 
cured so much attention to be paid to the Indian yugs 
or ages, but a persuasion on the part of certain very 

1 See the paper on the Gods of Greece, Italy," an< i India. — Asiatic 
Researches, vol. i. 

2 Mill's British India. 



HINDU ASTRONOMICAL TABLES. 197 

eminent lovers of science, that they were connected 
in a most extraordinary manner with the science of 
astronomy. It fell indeed to the lot of so celebrated a 
man as Professor Playfair, to give a false celebrity to 
the Hindu astronomical tables, in a dissertation read 
before the Royal Society at Edinburgh, in 1788: — he 
announced the following conclusions. "On the grounds 
which have now been explained the following general 
conclusions appear to be established. The observa- 
tions on which the astronomy of India is founded, 
were made more than 3,000 years before the Christ- 
ian era," (consequently more than 650 years before 
the Deluge, according to the Hebrew chronology), 
" and in particular the places of the sun and moon at 
the Kali yug," (the age of misfortune, 3102 b. c.) 
" were determined by actual observation" Other 
conclusions of the same learned person would carry 
back the time of these observations to 4,300 years be- 
fore the Christian era. 

But these conclusions were afterwards proved to be 
altogether fallacious by the two celebrated French 
philosophers, Laplace and Delambre, who, giving 
more credit to M. Bentley's conclusion, that they 
had only been calculated backward, and were there- 
fore comparatively modern \ may be said to have 
totally overruled the decisions of the Scottish pro- 
fessor, and done much to prove, as Dr. Ure has ob- 
served, that the opinion entertained by the Hindus 
of their great antiquity, is "founded in vanity, ig- 
norance, and credulity." Cuvier himself, speaking of 
Bailly's system, says, " The whole of this system, 
invented with so much labour, falls to the ground of 



1 About 1281 of the Christian era. 
K 3 



198 



BACKWARD CALCULATIONS. 



itself, now that it is proved that this epoch has been 
adopted but of late, from calculations made backwards, 
and even false in their results V Though M. Bailly 
did certainly rely too much on the proficiency of the 
Hindus in the science of astronomy, we are still in- 
debted to him for his great attention to the artificial 
chronology of ancient times, and the very ingenious 
manner in which he was able to detect a very extra- 
ordinary agreement between not only all the ancient 
accounts, Phoenician, Egyptian, Chaldean, and He- 
brew, but with the more recently discovered annals 
of China and India, thereby supplying us with ample 
reasons to conclude that (to use his own words) they 
were all derived from one source; in fact, it seems 
almost impossible to resist the conclusion that the tra- 
ditions concerning the true chronology of the world, 
ante-diluvian and post-diluvian, were the foundation 
of all the extravagant computations of the ancients ; 
that they have preserved what is true 2 , in forms more 
artificial than could possibly be consistent with any 
real history whatsoever. That in most, if not in all 
instances, they have carried them back beyond the 

1 Theory of the Earth, with Professor Jameson's Illustrations, 5th 
edit. 1827. To this edition, as well as the fourth, the learned editor 
was able to add two learned discussions by Cuvier, on the newness of 
the present continents, as confirmed by the history of nations ; and on 
the proofs regarding the antiquity of nations alleged to be contained in 
their astronomical and other monuments. 

2 " Is it possible," says M. Cuvier, " that mere accident should afford 
so striking a result as to unite the traditional origin of the Assyrian, 
Indian, and Chinese monarchies to the same epoch of about 4,000 years 
from the present time ? — could the ideas of nations, who possessed almost 
no mutual affinities, — whose language, religion, and laws, had nothing 
in common, — could they conspire to one point, -did not truth bring 
them together ?" The remark will apply to an abundance of similar 
cases. 



CHRONOLOGICAL RIDDLES. 



199 



Mosaic era of the creation, through what M. Bailly 
calls, " le gout du merveilleux" or perhaps in the 
way of rivalry, of which they have all been accused ; 
that many are entirely astronomical, and as Mr. 
Bryant long ago very judiciously observed of Ma- 
netho's famous cycle of 36,525 years belong rather 
to an ephemeris, than to true history. 

We may now, then, reasonably conclude, that the 
Bible history and chronology stand perfectly secure 
from all future disturbance from other histories, and 
other computations of time. History, indeed, there is 
none to be found; the very extravagant computations 
of ancient nations have in nothing so much failed as 
in the total absence of all support, from any credible 
records of human transactions 2 , while the computa- 
tions themselves have been so sifted, and examined, 
as to turn out to be little better than chronological or 
astronomical riddles. The solution of which, though 
not very pleasant reading, from the incumbrance of 
figures, exhibits such a series of unexpected coin- 
cidences, and curious combinations of numbers, as not 
entirely to be passed over, in a work particularly de- 
signed to establish the exclusive credibility of the 
sacred records, in point both of history and chrono- 
logy, and on the authority more immediately of Moses 
and St. Paul 3 . I will be as brief as possible. 

Four hundred and thirty-two thousand years ap- 

1 Jamblichus tells us, the writings of Hermas amounted to this very 
number of 36,525 books. 

2 This is admirably shown by the President Goguet, in his well known 
work on the origin of arts and sciences ; where he justly observes, that the 
absurd pretensions to an immense antiquity, founded on fabulous chro- 
nicles, were, in the case of the Egyptians particularly, almost turned 
into ridicule by Cicero, Diodorus, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Varro. 

3 See Parts I. and II. 

K 4 



200 KEY TO NUMERICAL MYSTERIES. 



pears to be a particular computation of ancient times. 
I have spoken of the Hindu ages ; eighteen in all, 
but only the four last judged to be worthy of any 
attention. Four hundred and thirty-two thousand 
years is the amount of the last or current age. Now 
in the Chinese annals the kings of heaven and the 
kings of earth are said to have reigned exactly 432,000 
years ; which we have shown to be the amount of the 
fourth or last Indian age ; but this number of years, 
multiplied by seven (the days in a week), produce 
3,034,000 days, which is exactly the number of days 
in the first two Indian ages, and which M. Bailly 
found to agree with the two first Chinese races of 
Tien-hoang, and Ti-hoang, and the Dives of the 
Persians ; while the third Chinese race of Gin-hoang 
agrees with the third Hindu age, and with the Peris 
of the Persians. Lastly, the 120 Chaldean Sari of 
Berosus, (who preceded St. Paul by nearly three 
centuries), at 3,600 years to a Saros, amount also to 
432,000 years, thus agreeing both with the Chinese 
and Hindus, but apparently in a most arbitrary man- 
ner. In Dr. Haies's Chronology, however, we have 
a key given us to unlock these numerical mysteries. 
The period of 432,000 years, he shows to have been 
produced by the multiplication of the two factors, 
18 and 24,000 into each other, of which 18 was the 
Chaldean Saros, and 24,000 the Annus Magnus, or 
grand revolution of the orb of the fixed stars, at fifty- 
four seconds a year. 



PART VI. 



I hope it will have appeared, from the foregoing 
parts of this work, that my chief motive for writing it 
has been, not to decry science as science, much less 
to check the course of experimental philosophy, justly 
so called, and for the progress and promotion of 
which, I could feel as anxious as Bacon himself, but 
to put unpliilosophical readers on their guard against 
any disturbance of their faith in the Holy Scriptures. 
Certain recent discoveries of organized bodies m 
our strata, having been supposed to indicate not 
only a succession of terrestrial revolutions, during an 
immeasurable amount of time \ but the absolute crea- 
tion and existence of numberless living beings, judged 
to have occupied the earth and waters, and even to 
have become extinct, before our own race was brought 
upon the stage; thereby manifestly appearing to estab- 
lish, as a discovery of modern science, the strong fact, 
that, as far as the earth is concerned, the Hebrew re- 
cords are likely to mislead us; if they have not in- 
deed already misled or confounded many heedless 
persons, to the great impediment and hindrance of the 
favourite science of geology 2 . 

I have therefore endeavoured in the first place to 
give an account of the history of man distinct from 

1 See Sir Charles Bell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 106. 2 LyelL 

K 5 



202 



NEED OF REVELATION. 



the history of the earth; not exactly in compliance 
with the demands of geologists, but to show what can 
be done without them; to show in what estimation 
Moses was held, as a sacred historian, by our Saviour 
and his holy apostles, who did not appear upon the 
earth, in any dark, illiterate age, but at a period par- 
ticularly unfavourable for any attempts to impose 
upon the world ; who challenged inquiry, excited 
inquiry, and had their credentials admitted, not by 
friends only, but by professed enemies and opponents; 
enemies well-armed in a worldly point of view, and 
opponents as subtle and acute, and what is more, as 
inquisitive, as the case could require. 

I have endeavoured to show, not through any con- 
tempt or denial of what is called natural religion, or 
of the reasoning powers of man, when applied to suit- 
able objects, that there is a darkness at the very 
best hanging over us, which nothing less than the 
light of revelation could disperse ; a light from 
heaven connecting us with the universe and the 
Author of the universe 1 ; and necessary, indispen- 
sably necessary, to " guide us into all truth ;" that is, 

1 If astronomy has enlarged our ideas of the universe, it has done 
nothing to disappoint our hopes, check our reasonable aspirings, or 
lessen our importance. 

" Know'st thou th' importance of a soul immortal ? 
Behold this midnight glory ; worlds on worlds ! 
Amazing pomp ! redouble this amaze; 
Ten thousand add ; add twice ten thousand more ; 
Then weigh the whole : one soul outweighs them all. 

The soul's high price is the creation's key, 
Unlocks its mysteries, and naked lays 
The genuine cause of every deed divine: 
This is the chain of ages, which maintains 
Their obvious correspondence, and unites 
Most distant periods in one bless'd design." 



NATURAL RELIGION INSUFFICIENT. 203 



all truth that can be strictly essential to us, as appa- 
rently the beings of a day, yet by adoption and grace, 
through Christ, heirs of immortality. 

I have quoted Pascal 1 as an authority for any dis- 
trust of the religion of nature, not only because he 
was a man of most extraordinary reasoning powers, 
but because he appears to me to have most correctly 
drawn the line between natural religion and revela- 
tion, in the following passage, which I shall beg leave 
to repeat. 

" Nature offers no consideration but what is the 
subject of doubt and disquiet. Could I nowhere discern 
the least token of divinity, I would resolve not to be- 
lieve at all ; could I in every thing trace the image of 
a Creator, I would rest myself upon a sure and settled 
belief; but while I see too much to deny, and too little 
to give me any certain confidence, my condition ren- 
ders me an object of pity; and I have a thousand 
times wished that if nature have indeed a divine 
Author and supporter, she would present us with the 
lively draught and uncontested character of His being ; 
but that, if the marks she does bear about her are 
fallacious, she would entirely conceal Him from our 
view, that she would either say all, or say nothing, 
so as to determine my judgment one way or the 
other." 

Here then is no further distrust of natural religion, 
than that nature does not tell all ; but, that the Author 
of nature had, by revelation, told all, to his entire 
relief from that pitiable condition which he contem- 

1 Pascal has a thought so similar to the above passage from Young, that 
I cannot forbear copying it. " Tous les corps, le firmament, les etoiles, 
la terre, et les royaumes, ne valent pas le moindre des esprits, car il 
connoit toutcela, et soi-meme, et le corps rien." 

K 6 



204 



HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. 



plates as the result of any doubt or disquiet upon 
such important subjects, no man more thoroughly be- 
lieved, no man more deeply felt, than Pascal himself, 
as his works show. — A shorter distinction still be- 
tween natural and revealed religion, and fully imply- 
ing the need we have of the latter, is to be found in the 
works of Bacon. "It is written," says that great 
man, " Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei, the heavens de- 
clare the glory of God ; but it is not written, Cceli 
enarrant voluntatem Dei. His will and pleasure with 
regard to man must be sought for elsewhere; de 
illis pronunciatur ad legem et testimonial 

" I gratefully receive and rejoice," Locke was used 
to say, " in the light of revelation, which has set me 
at rest in many things, the manner whereof my poor 
reason could by no means make out to me." 

" Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit : there 
is more hope of a fool than of him," says Solomon. 
It would be endless to attempt to enumerate, the 
great men, ancient and modern, confessedly unwise in 
their oxen conceit^ while in want of the light of revela- 
tion. 

I have given the history of the Bible, in order to 
show, not only that it is, without exception, the oldest 
book extant, but that it contains exactly what the 
oldest book extant might be expected to contain, the 
history of the beginning of things, and the origin of 
man, not as an organic development ; not as a rude 
savage thrown loosely upon the earth to find his own 
way without guidance or direction, but as created in 
the image of God himself, endowed in a wonderful 
manner with the gifts of reason and intelligence, and 
still more wonderfully entrusted with a freedom of will, 
to render him a moral being of a higher order than 



RISK OF FALSE IMPRESSIONS. 



205 



the rest of the animal creation, and to fit him for 
the rewards of virtue, in case of a willing obedience. 

I have shown, that under the above circumstances, 
the progenitor of our race, Adam, fell from his original 
estate by disobedience to the law given him, and that 
to remedy the losses incurred, and abrogate the 
threatened penalties, a new creation and a second 
Adam, were ordained to take place and to appear, 
in fulfilment of the counsels of the Almighty ; the 
history of which events, the uncontradicted history, 
constitutes of course not only a part of true religion, 
but the most essential part, compared with any thing 
that nature alone, or the reason of man alone, discover 
to us, or could supply. This then is, I think, a just 
picture of the history of man, as known to us theo- 
logically ; I have further endeavoured to show, how he 
is known to us geologically. 

But here, I apprehend, I shall scarcely escape 
derision, perhaps worse ; derision I can bear, for I 
have long ceased to be a geologist myself, and 
should never have ventured to meddle again with 
the subject, but to prevent false impressions, as in- 
jurious to the reputation of well-disposed geologists 
themselves, as to the persons whom they may unin- 
tentionally perplex by their very ingenious, but 
altogether scientific writings. There is an old school 
maxim, that may serve to express or explain what 
I feel upon the subject. i 6 Quicquid recipitur re- 
cipitur ad modum recipients" The books of modern 
geologists may, and very probably do, contain a great 
deal of what they themselves know to be sound philo- 
sophy, curious discovery, and absolute fact ; but any 
unguarded expressions in the enunciation of these par- 
ticulars, considering the multiplicity of readers they 



206 



UNFAIR CHARGES. 



will attract (for their books are to be found now in 
most of our reading societies in town and country), 
may have the effect of disturbing principles of more 
value than all the philosophical discoveries that can 
be made. I have myself been asked questions that 
would prove what I say. 

It is not, therefore, in any contempt or defiance 
of the propounders of this new knowledge, that I send 
this little book into the world, but in compassion to 
such recipients of their very curious information, 
as may stand in need of caution and advice. 

I am surprised to think that generally speaking, the 
mere attempt to uphold the credit of Moses, should have 
been judged to deserve such hard names and words 
as are to be found in certain books and journals which 
have fallen in my way ; religious animosity, priestly 
pride, and zeal, bigotry of the worst kind (which 
however, having been pronounced to be in these days, 
utterly powerless, must for the same reason be harm- 
less), despicable ignorance, a decrying of reason, be- 
cause they are afraid of it, a disparagement of 
intellect, through a conscious want of it ; lastly, and 
perhaps above all, an absolute enmity to, and spite 
against science. 

I know that I am laying myself open to such 
charges and more, but I cannot say that the dread 
of them is so great as to prevent my speaking my 
mind. 

I feel no enmity to science, no jealousy of scientific 
researches cautiously conducted. I have nothing to 
say against a march of intellect, as long as it does not 
proceed in too quick time *, to the alarm and over- 

1 This is the principal danger. I know a science, of about the same 
age as geology, in which it appears to be too much the fashion to form 



UNGUARDED EXPRESSIONS. 



207 



setting of more quiet observers astounded at the 
rapidity of its course. It deserves besides to be con- 
sidered, that there are some intellects so much slower 
and duller than others, as to be quite incapable of 
keeping up with the latter, and in their too great 
haste to do so, though their leaders may be any thing 
but blind, they themselves may fall into a ditch or 
two, as much to their individual damage as though 
their very leaders icere, strictly speaking, stone blind. 

It is this that has induced me to look so narrowly 
to the language of geologists, as calculated to produce 
false impressions upon some minds, though certainly 
not intended to do so. I shall cite a passage to 
this effect from an author of eminence, whose pub- 
lication was sent to me after much of this work was 
printed. 

" If we look at the actual case of the writings of 
Moses, it is surely in ever?/ way, the most probable sup- 
position that tradition had preserved some legendary 
memorials of primaeval events, and that the origin 
of the world had been recorded in a poetical cos- 
mogony" 

Before the credit of Moses be suffered to fall under 
the weight of these " probable suppositions," I shall 
hope to be excused observing, what odd traditionary 

hasty conclusions, and even act upon them, at- no small risk. It is a 
science certainly of infinite importance in a political point of view, but 
of the too great rapidity of its march, I think I have proofs before my 
eyes, not easily to be disputed ; I allude to the number of commis- 
sions sent abroad at this time to make inquiries, and the very recent 
establishment of a Statistical Society, for the purpose of collecting 
facts, without a complete knowledge of which, such undeniable con- 
clusions can never be arrived at, as the science requires ; without such 
information in short, it can only be regarded as a system of very 
hazardous experiments. 



208 



TRADITIONS, &C. 



and legendary memorials these must have been, that 
in those very remote times (to speak only of the 
origin of man) should have brought Moses so much 
nearer to the actual truth of things, than was the 
case with the historians of all other ancient nations. 
The French Deists, at the time of the revolution, 
would have it that Moses borrowed his cosmogony 
from India ; but MM. Teller, Eichhorn, and other 
German expositors, judged him to have borrowed it 
from the Chaldeans and Egyptians, all of whom are 
now known to have ascribed such an age to the earth, 
and the inhabitants of the earth, as to be wholly and 
glaringly inconsistent with the Genesis of Moses. 
Had Moses gone beyond the computations of other 
ancient nations, and carried his history and chronology 
much higher than he is allowed to have done, he 
might with reason have been reputed at the least, as 
cunning as the Chaldeans, who, as Lactantius ob- 
serves (speaking expressly of their chronological 
extravagancies), " in quo quia se posse argui non 
putabant, liberum sibi crediderunt esse, mentiri" 
that is, because they judged it to be impossible for 
any to contradict them, they held themselves to be 
quite at liberty to falsify. Moses, therefore, must 
have been the most incautious, and least cunning 
writer in the world, to have trusted to any traditions 
or legendary tales that would have laid him so open 
to contradiction, as that part of Genesis must have 
done, which related to the beginning of the human 
race ; but which happens to be confirmed by such 
a succession of proofs, as cannot be alleged of any 
other history in the compass of the globe. " How 
was it," says the learned Dr. Craven, in his able 
discourses on the Jewish and Christian revelations, 



POETICAL COSMOGONIES. 



209 



" that the Jews drew not water from the fountains of 
Chaldea and Egypt, or rather^ whence had they their 
clear and pure waters, when all the springs around 
were muddy and corrupt?" " It would be a degree 
of injustice to the claims of Moses, to institute any 
comparison between the sacred and the oriental philo- 
sophy. It cannot be easily conceived, how he could 
have escaped the contagion of that system, which 
spread itself universally over the East, and which 
captivated alike the Greek philosophers and the 
Hebrew sages; had he not written under the direction 
of a higher and infallible monitor." — Nolan. 

But perhaps it will be said, Moses might be right 
about man, but still as to the earth, his account must 
have been derived from some poetical cosmogony. 

Now I believe the first poetical cosmogony we know 
of was Hesiod's, who flourished about five centuries 
and a half after Moses, and who is supposed to have 
borrowed his idea of a chaos from the very history 
in question, and it is odd enough, after what I have 
said concerning the chaotic and anti-chaotic systems 
in a former part of this work, that Hesiod made the 
very blunder, that my friend De Luc avoided; instead 
of going back to a fiat of the Almighty for the re- 
duction of his chaos into order, he made a god of chaos 
itself, to the exclusion of the Author of the universe \ 

1 Having just cited a passage from Dr. Nolan's Bampton Lecture 
of the last year, 1833, I cannot omit to observe, that I had no oppor- 
tunity of seeing it till after all the foregoing sections of this little work 
were written, and in the course of being printed. It may be supposed 
that I should otherwise have made more references to so learned a 
work ; especially considering, that there we find a primitive chaos 
again, with light as the first physical agent, in reducing it to order; 
there we find the Sabbath insisted on as a memorial of the creation, 
and as then first instituted ; there we find the disappearance of stars 



210 PHYSICS DISTINCT FROM REVELATION. 



So far then from admitting, that it is in every way 
the most probable supposition, that Moses wrote the 
history of man, (mixed up as it is with his Cosmogony, 
properly so called,) merely on the authority of tradi- 
tionary legends, I must acknowledge that I am still 
disposed, to receive as true, the account he gives of a 
chaotic confusion of things, about the time of man's 
first appearance upon the earth; though it might 
only be the termination of some preceding epoch, an- 
terior, that is, to the creation of man, and with which, 
of course, even if I were to grant the point, we could 
have nothing to do; not being at such times, ac- 
cording to geologists " denizens" of the globe itself. 
It cannot be dissembled that the Mosaic history, as it 
is commonly received, stands in their way, and why not 
therefore, submit to the severance on which they ap- 
pear so earnestly to insist \ and leave them to make 

acknowledged to be a pretty certain indication of the probable dissolu- 
tion or extinction of particular planets or systems ; and of course the 
appearance of new stars, as indicative of new creations ; and all for 
moral ends and purposes. There we find the natural chronometers, 
applied by De Luc to the proof of the Noachic Deluge, and insisted 
upon, as approved by Dolomieu, Cuvier, Greenough, &c. There also we 
even find a fair conjecture as to the existence and extinction of antedilu- 
vian monsters. I could not be aware that a writer so much more learned 
than myself, was applying his attention to precisely the same subjects, and 
exactly at the same time. After all, however, Dr. Nolan's work is very 
different from my own, being altogether learned, grave, and argumentative. 

1 I do not like to use strong words when I can possibly avoid it, but 
in this instance, I cannot think the word insist too strong. We are 
positively told by philosophers, and geologists, and professors of great 
name, that revelation and physics can have nothing to do with each 
other ; then let physics take their chance ; and let believers in revela- 
tion stick to revelation. If Moses may be supposed to have spoken of 
physics in his six days' creation, he has certainly spoken also of the 
power of God, which I apprehend to be above physics, and riot amenable 
to the present observable laws of physics. If any man, therefore, 
should be disposed to believe, on the authority of Moses, that it might 



THE MOSAIC HISTORY. 211 

what tliey please of their anterior periods, epochs, and 
worlds without end ; the knowledge of believers in 
general need not certainly be carried farther than the 
point where the history of their own race begins, 
especially if they have no more to learn of any prece- 
ding state of the planet than geologists are able to 
tell us. 

Perhaps some flaw in these theories may yet be 
discovered ; for though I am the last man in the world 
to dispute any facts, that ought to be received at once 
as strictly indisputable, I am at a loss to account for 
the state of things, to which their conclusions lead us. 
I am at a loss to understand what the object can have 
been of delivering up this goodly planet, to the sole 
use of a multitude of strange animals, for a great 
length of time, without any contemporary beings of 
higher faculties \ 

The Mosaic history of creation begins with God, 
and relates things worthy of God ; the geological his- 
tory of things, to say the least, seems to begin with 
nature, distinct from, though not altogether exclusive 
of God. 

I copy the following from a publication but lately 

not be altogether impossible for Omnipotence, to call into existence in six 
days such scenes and such beings as we behold around us, where would 
be his great offence ? I know not, and I think Longinus, if he had 
been asked, would have said, the ground of such belief was, the very 
height of sublimity, as regards the Supreme Being. There is another 
change we have been taught to look to, when the earth shall be called 
upon to deliver up her dead ; and in which the power of God, will not 
stay for physical processes, but the change to be accomplished, though 
most wonderful, will take place, we are told, ev arofxoj, tv pnry o<p$a\- 
fiov, " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye !" 1 Cor. xv. 52. 

1 Unless indeed their very remains were wanted, as some appear to 
have thought, to render the earth habitable for man ; an odd conceit, but 
one that, among a multitude of others, has had its day. 

12 



212 



SUCCESSION OF ERAS. 



come to hand, though already referred to " The [Mo*- 
saic] narrative assigns six days, in each of which arose 
successively, in the order of more perfect organization, 
the earth and its various productions up toman, followed 
by a seventh day of rest and blessing. The facts which 
continued and laborious examination have established 
beyond the possibility of question, on the part of any 
one competently acquainted with the subject, are those of 
a long succession of periods or eras, throughout each of 
which the world had its perfect compliment of life in 
abundant variety, continuing through different stages 
of indefinitely long duration, successively developing 
new forms of vitality to supply the place of those 
which had become extinct, until at length, in the 
countless revolutions of ages, the face of the globe, 
and the species inhabiting it, began to assume some- 
thing like its existing appearance, and became a suit- 
able habitation for man." [Substance of a discourse 
by the Rev. Baden Powell, M.A., F.R.S., Savilian 
Professor of Geometry, Oxford, 1833.] As the 
learned author declares it to be the main principle of his 
publication to prove, that " the existence of these ab- 
solute contradictions is no argument against the truth 
of revelation in general, or the Christian religion in 
particular," and as / am certainly not so " completely 
acquainted with the subject," as to do more than copy 
what I find thus given as a specimen of the geological 
history of things, I can only repeat that it seems to 
speak of what is supposed to have taken place in 
regard to our planet, as of the movements of a ma- 
chine set a-going and left to pursue its course 
" through a countless revolution of ages," without 
any need of providential interference or moral super- 
intendence : for the " development of new forms of 



APPEARANCES OF FABLE. 



213 



vitality," renders, or seems to render, new creations 
altogether unnecessary, which some geologists fully 
admit to have taken place at different periods. On 
this account I should be disposed still to say, and 
maintain, that as far as God and man are concerned, 
the creation and introduction of our own species 
ought to be regarded as the proper beginning of things, 
when moral uses and moral ends manifestly appear to 
have been contemplated, and the Almighty evidently 
took the course of events into his own hands by the 
wonderful gift of prophecy. The learned professor above 
cited, speaks certainly of the creation of man, as distinct 
from the preceding " developments of vitality," and 
mentions, as closely connected with each other, man's 
£< creation and redemption" Prophecy begins, as every 
reader of the Bible must know, as early as at the 
fifteenth verse of the third chapter of the Book of 
Genesis, and it seems scarcely probable that this most 
important prediction, a prediction in a course of ful- 
filment from Genesis to Revelation (and beyond), 
should have been mixed up with legendary tales and 
poetical fictions. 

Appearances indeed of fiction, fable, and poetical 
imagery, could scarcely perhaps have been avoided, 
where the realities were of the nature of miracles, and 
future things, to be only known through emblems ; as 
the hazardous acquirement of knowledge — "know- 
ledge of good and evil." The conditional tenure of 
human life ; the strict unity or rather actual identity 
of persons bound together by the matrimonial tie, 
" flesh of flesh, and bone of bone :" even the law on 
which all the responsibilities of our species appear to 
have been suspended, was of necessity frivolous to a 
certain degree, not one of the laws of the Decalogue, 



214 



FREE WILL. 



as is well known, being applicable to the condition of 
our first parents, the history being true. 

In short, I can scarcely express what I mean, in 
more apt terms, than I applied long ago to the case 
of the Prussian Jews, of whom I have said so much in 
a former part of this work ; the following passage 
occurs in my Bampton Lecture of 1805; and conse- 
quently not directed against any living persons. 

Speaking of the origin of evil, as related in Genesis, 
(or at the least its first appearance in our own system), 
I had written : — 

" God is there represented as the Author of evil, 
in the only sense in which it is possible he should be 
so ; as allowing the possibility of evil, that man might 
enjoy the inestimable gift of free will. From the 
abuse of free will in a being of a higher order, we 
have intimation of an opposing principle, but of no 
independent one. As soon as we read of him in the 
Bible, we read of his dependence on the Supreme, 
his subjection to his irresistible power and will. As 
soon as we read of him as an enemy to our nature, we 
have intimation of God's protection against him, and 
it is the same in regard to earthly things : as soon as 
we read of the introduction of evil, and the corruption 
of matter, and the dissolution of the body, we have 
intimation of a remedy ; we are taught to regard them 
not as evils of necessary permanency, but as recover- 
able and temporary. 

" But this beautiful and satisfactory solution of all 
our doubts and difficulties concerning the origin of 
evil l , being by the author of the Pentateuch neces- 

1 Milton, as is well known, upon the foundation of this very history, 
has not scrupled to introduce it into his Paradise Lost, as an explanation 
of one of the greatest mysteries appertaining to our condition proceeding 



milton's account. 



215 



sarily delivered, not fabulously, [xvOacug, but yet, 

from the mouth of the Almighty himself — who is represented as sitting on 
his throne, and beholding Satan flying towards the world, thus address- 
ing the Son. 

Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way 

Not far off heaven, in the precincts of light, 

Directly tow'rds the new created world, 

And man there plac'd, with purpose to assay 

If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, 

By some false guile pervert ; — and shall pervert — 

For man w ill hearken to his glowing lies, 

And easily transgress the sole command, 

Sole pledge of his obedience — so will fall 

He and his faithless progeny — whose fault? 

Whose but his own ? — ingrate, he had of me 

All he could have ; I made him just and right, 

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. 

Such I created all th' ethereal powers 

And spirits, both them who stood, and them who fail'd ; 

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. 

Not free, what proof could they have giv'n sincere 

Of true allegiance, constant faith or love, 

Where only what they needs must do appear'd 

Not what they would ? — what praise could they receive ? 

What pleasure I, from such obedience paid, 

When will and reason, (reason also is choice) 

Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled, 

Made passive both, had serv'd necessity 

Not me ? — they therefore, as to right belong'd, 

So were created, nor can justly accuse 

Their Maker, or their making, or their fate, 

As if predestination over-ruled 

Their will, by absolute decree 

Or high fore-knowledge : they themselves decreed 

Their own revolt, not I ; if I foreknew, 

Fore-knowledge had no influence on their fault, 

Which had no less prov'd certain, unforeknown. 

So without least impulse, or shadow of fate 

Or aught by me immutably foreseen 

They trespass, authors to themselves in all 

Both what they judge, and what they choose ; for so 



216 



Priestley's comments. 



cv juvOov <jyj)iiaTi *, in terms and descriptions so little 
correspondent to present experience, as to resemble 
fable more than fact ; it has been one of the conces- 
sions most peremptorily demanded of us of late, that 
we should consent to acknowledge it to be no better 
than a mythological representation of things, a de- 
scription " merely imagined to account for known 
phenomena." 

There is very much more to the purpose, entirely 
written with a view to the representations I had re- 
ceived immediately from Prussia ; not only through 
my old friend De Luc, but through other channels 
also. That such sentiments proceeded from false im- 
pressions there is no doubt ; impressions which, I 
think far too well of our own geologists, to suppose 
they would encourage; but I am sorry their parti- 
cular pursuits should lead them to put it into the 
heads of persons less wise than themselves, that Moses, 
wrote upon no better authority, than c< legendary me- 
morials," and " poetical cosmogonies." 

I am pleased with some remarks of Dr. Priestley 
to be found in his notes on Genesis. " The history 
of Adam in paradise," he observes, " has something 
in it that has the air of fable; but notwithstanding 
this, it is infinitely more rational than any account of 
the primitive state of men in any heathen writer. 

" The heathens in general looked no higher for the 
origin of things than the earth, and the visible parts 

I form'd them free ; and free they must remain, 
'Till they enthral themselves ; I else must change 
Their nature, and revoke the high decree 
Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain'd 
Their freedom ! — they themselves ordain'd their fall." 

1 Aristot. Metaphys. 



THE SAME CONTINUED. 



217 



of nature : and these were the objects of their worship. 
In opposition probably to them, Moses begins with as- 
serting the existence of a Being who created all those 
things, and who is of course the sovereign disposer of 
them. The phrase in the beginning, must mean before 
they existed ; if creation means, a creation out of no- 
thing. If it means, as it sometimes does, their pre- 
sent constitution, in the beginning will be before that 
constitution was formed, and the present appearances 
took place; so that the earth might have existed in 
some other form long before. 

" According to Moses, the original state of the 
earth was perfectly fluid ; and such it must have been 
in order that by its rotation upon its axis it should 
acquire the form of an oblate spheroid which it now 
has. 

" It is probable that this account of the progress of 
the creation is a history of appearances, such as would 
have been given by a person who had seen the whole, 
but was ignorant of the causes of what he saw ; and 
the sacred writers always ascribe the operation of 
natural causes to the immediate agency of the Deity. 
But as neither Adam, nor any other man, could know 
what had passed before his creation, and he must have 
received much instruction from his Maker, it is not 
improbable that this general account of the five first 
days was communicated to him by revelation. It is 
evidently delivered not as from conjecture, but as 
from authority, though the manner in which the com- 
munication was made is not mentioned." 

Now I think there is a great deal of good sense in 
this. The history of the beginning of the human 
race may have something in it of the air of a fable, 
but is yet by far the most rational account extant, and 

L 



218 



man's beginning. 



the reason has been given why it might be expected 
to bear an air of fable. The idea, that before the 
present actual constitution of things took place, the 
earth might have existed in some other form, leaves 
an opening for geologists to pursue their researches 
as far as ever they can fairly carry them, and marks a 
beginning for our particular connection with the planet 
in which it may be seen from the former passages in 
this work, I have always been disposed to agree, I 
have inserted the sentence concerning the original 
fluid state of the earth, as to be inferred from its 
shape, because I am persuaded that its oblate sphe- 
roidal form, will long continue to keep up the impres- 
sion of a chaos, though I believe Professor Playfair 
endeavoured to prove long ago, that such a state of 
things was not strictly necessary to produce the parti- 
cular form so often insisted upon. Lastly, I quite 
agree with Dr. Priestley in thinking that the account 
in Genesis, is delivered more upon authority than 
conjecture, and that it might have been communi- 
cated by express revelation. I would add to the 
above, that as no man, according to Dr. Priestley's 
remark, could know what had passed before his own 
creation, neither Moses nor any other man, could ex- 
pect to be believed in writing of such things, unless 
he were sensible himself that he derived his informa- 
tion from a higher source. 

Dr. Priestley proceeds to say, that what are called 
days in the Mosaic history, may mean any periods of 
time ; but though this is an opinion that has been en- 
tertained by others besides Dr. Priestley, and parti- 
cularly by De Luc, I have quite declined doing more 
than refer to the authors who have most recently dis- 
cussed the point, as a topic of criticism and learned 



ON THE SABBATH. 



219 



discussion. I have insisted largely upon the Sabbath, 
chiefly upon the score of feeling, as an institution, of 
which I am certain the world could not be deprived, 
without a great sacrifice of some of the purest and 
noblest sentiments incident to our nature. I have heard 
of something approaching to controversy upon this 
subject also, but have felt no disposition, at my 
time of life, to enter into it \ The only living- 
author I have consulted, is Mr. Holden, who has 
written learnedly and piously upon the Christian 
Sabbath ; a gentleman who is so kind as to send 
me his very valuable publications, though I have 
not the honour of being acquainted with him 2 . On 
opening his book, now on my table, I find in the 

1 The opinion of the learned professor, whose recent publication I 
have had occasion to notice, is, that the Lord's Day is " simply a fes- 
tival observed by the Christian Church on the first day of the week in 
commemoration of our Lord's resurrection on that day, and having no 
reference whatever to the Mosaic Sabbath." He therefore concludes, 
" that the Christian authority of that observance can in no way be en - 
dangered by the rejection of the Mosaic description of the creation as a 
literal history ;" but if the Lord's Day of the Christians had no reference 
to the creation, the Sabbath had, and the early Christians observed both ; 
the former as a memorial of the resurrection, the latter of the creation ; 
as many of the Christian fathers have expressly told us [see Grotius on 
the Decalogue]. In such equal reverence were they held as to be called 
brothers and twin-days, Ka\r}v ttjv avvupida rov <ra(3(3aTov /ecu rrjg 
KvpiaKijg. 

2 Of the several authors who have at various times done me the 
honour of sending me their works, I cannot help mentioning at this time 
the Earl of Bridgewater, to whom the public is so much indebted for the 
very valuable treatises just published in virtue of his benefaction, and on 
a subject applicable, I trust, to my own views, in this trifling perform- 
ance viz. " on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested 
in the creation." Having had occasion to complain of the apparent sub- 
stitution of nature for God, in the writings of modern philosophers, I 
may observe, that in one of Lord Bridgewater's books, I find him speak- 

L 2 



220 APOSTACY OF CERTAIN JEWS, &C. 



very last page, the following short but excellent 
passage : " The san education of the Sabbath is 
indispensable to them who shall be meet for the 
holiness of heaven." 

I know not what course geology may take when I am 
dead and gone. I have lived to see many changes, and 
have written, as the survivor of many theorists^ whose 
names and whose merits, have only been recalled to my 
recollection, by what I have judged to be misrepresen- 
tations and misconceptions of their particular sentiments 
and opinions ; I have dwelt longer perhaps upon the 
case of De Luc than I should have done, had I not had 
many manuscripts in his own handwriting to refer to, 
and which have never seen the light. I wished to 
produce him also as a witness to the fact of the apos- 
tasy of certain Jews and Christians in the kingdom of 
Prussia, who professed to have abandoned what I 
have ever considered to be a most important part of 
revelation, in consequence of the discovery that the 
earth did not confirm what Moses had written con- 
cerning it ; and proceeding so far upon the strength 
of this discovery, as greatly to lessen, in the eyes and 
thoughts of man, the credit of both Judaism and 
Christianity. What has happened may happen again; 
and though I know as well as the most ardent of our 
present race of philosophers, that the cause of revela- 
tion may be injured by any indiscreet attack upon 

ing of nature as the creature of the Creator ! Servant of God ! instru- 
ment of his will ! unerringly obedient to his command ! Sometimes 
man speaks, he says, of nature as " a substitute of God." Sometimes of 
God and nature, rather than God by nature, or God through nature ; he 
even notices the ambiguity of such expressions, as the " nature of 
things," the " order of things," &c. with more to the same effect, but 
his books being printed in English at Paris, exhibit a strange appear- 
ance. 



MOSES A PROPHET. 



221 



science, I have long perceived that if the foundations 
of Christianity be not carefully looked to, they may 
be shaken by science before the generality of Christ- 
ians are aware of it. There is nothing more certain 
than that revelation has received a warning to stick 
closely to her own concerns and not meddle with 
physics. " Mosaical mineralogy," and " scriptural 
geology," have been so proscribed, that neither piety, 
nor learning, can shelter the bold adventurers in such 
a cause from mockery and derision 1 ; and indeed I 
think myself, such terms had better be avoided. I 
have, therefore, not attempted to uphold the credit of 
Moses as a philosopher, certainly not as a minera- 
logist or geologist; but as an historian, and a pro- 
phet, I have the same confidence in him that ever I 
had. 

To conclude. — If our modern, I may perhaps say, 
our living geologists, feel themselves able to place 
things upon a stable and lasting foundation, I am 
quite willing to acknowledge, that they will do more, 
much more than any of their predecessors have been 
able to accomplish, who have been successively swept 
off the stage, one after another in a most extraor- 
dinary manner 2 . The greatest and most searching 
sweeper of this kind that I have ever met with, is 
Dr. Macculloch, who yet lays it down as a maxim, 

1 " Messrs. Penn, Fairholme, Higgins, et id genus omne." A common 
et ccetera would have been more polite at least. 

2 Cuvier was so tender of the reputation of preceding naturalists, that 
he used to say, " Half a century has sufficed for a complete metamor- 
phosis in science ; and it is very probable, that in a similar space of 
time, we also shall have become ancient to a future generation. These 
motives ought never to suffer us to forget the respectful gratitude we owe 
to those who have preceded us." — Memoirs by Mrs. Lee. 

L 3 



222 



DR. MACCULLOCH, 



that " he who must begin with sweeping", is choked 
by dust." I do not know whether the worthy Doctor 
is yet choked by the dust he has himself raised 
or not, but of this I am quite sure, that while his 
observations on the fabric of the earth seem to me 
to be most profound, and far exceeding my abilities 
fully to comprehend and appreciate, he appears to 
have been led to a conclusion that greatly interests 
me, and which for the honour of geologists, I shall 
feel happy to transcribe. 

" And have I not shown that what is thus consis- 
tent with the conduct of the Deity, is also not incon-< 
sistent with his revealed word ? If I have not, I have 
proved nothing; if there were aught in geology 

WHICH CONTRADICTED THAT WORD, I SHOULD BE 
AMONG THE FIRST TO SAY, THE SCIENCE IS IN 
ERROR." 

I could produce passages to the same effect from 
the writings of other geologists, and I think therefore 
it ought to be known, that though they may seem 
to break in upon revelation, by the views in which 
they indulge themselves, of the unfathomable antiquity 
of the globe, they do not really mean to lessen the 
credit of the Holy Scriptures, though some of their 
expressions, and the unfortunate contempt they 
manifest, for the interference of a few pious and well- 
meaning Christians, have certainly exposed them to 
suspicions of such a tendency, beyond what they 
themselves seem to apprehend ; the very acknow- 
ledgments they make of their unshaken belief of 
revelation, are sometimes so oddly introduced, and 
so nearly lost amidst the overwhelming mass of 
purely scientific observations, as to raise a doubt 
whether such acknowledgments be strictly sincere; 



HIS CENSURES AND CRITICISMS. 



223 



at all events, it seems to leave it to the unscientific 
friends of revelation to make out for themselves, how 
the two propositions can be true, that they do not 
believe all that Moses has told them, and yet have as 
much confidence as ever in the great truths of re- 
vealed religion. That we may part in good humour, 
I shall conclude with some of the sweepings of the 
eminent geologist just referred to; being so many 
obstructions at least removed out of the path of their 
own researches ; and first of my friend De Luc. 

" De Luc borrowed from Saussure, — his claims to 
originality therefore are but trifling, as they are not 
enviable ; commencing with the history of the earth, 
before the creation of the sun, he must be allowed to 
settle this with a science of which he probably had not 
heard. I must be excused from trying to abridge 
what I do not understand." I must confess, I do not 
myself understand the exact bearings of the censure 
thus passed upon my old friend and acquaintance, 
but to proceed : — 

On modern geologists in general, to his own time, 
he says, "If I pay no regard to their claims to 
priority, it is, that the chronology of folly or error is 
not worth settling." 

Much in the same manner he sweeps away, with his 
geological besom, the whole tribe of Wernerians. 66 It 
is an idle office to settle the claims of ignorance :" — and 
of the system itself he says, 4 6 unfortunately, the less 
intelligible it is, the more it is explained ;" and again, 
66 to examine its loud pretences to agree with the 
sacred records, shall be left to those who can read a 
book more often talked of than read." Lastly, " but 
more than enough (of the Wernerian system), odious 

l 4 



224 



THE SAME CONTINUED. 



as is the task, such criticism is a needful branch of 
geological instruction." 

Of Kepler and Patrin he writes as follows. " If I 
need not assign the relative merits of Kepler and 
Patrin, suffice it that the earth is a living animal ; 
vital fluids circulate, minerals are produced by assi- 
milation, the mountains are lungs, the schists are 
glands, secretion causes volcanoes, and even chemistry 
is an animal power. Patrin at least was a geologist. 
Conchologists or geologists 4 haud multum distant.' 
I need not, however, tell the scholar that this 6 vita- 
lity' of the celestial bodies has not the merit of novelty ; 
and all can see that the sympathies of molecules are 
the £ understanding' of the stoics." 

Burnet's eloquence seems to make him a favourite 
with every body, but he gets credit for more than 
eloquence from the pen of the learned critic. 

Whiston's comet and heat-retaining nucleus^ reminds 
the doctor of his strange conceit, already noticed, 
that the warmth of the original earth generated vice 
in the terrestrial inhabitants, while the colder aquatic 
ones escaped both crime and condemnation. 

I scarcely dare write what the Doctor says of 
Woodward^ considering that there is not only a Wood- 
wardian Professor at Cambridge, but at this moment 
one of the most eminent perhaps that ever filled that 
chair, as well as one of the most conspicuous members 
of the modern geological school \ Giving Woodward 

1 Since much of this work was actually printed, I have had an op- 
portunity of reading Professor Sedgwick's Discourse on the Studies of 
the University of Cambridge, and have found in it a passage extremely 
consonant to my own ideas of our connection with the earth, on the 
principles of revelation. The passage is rather long, but too much to 



ON THEORIES OF THE EARTH. 



225 



due credit for his practical knowledge, he yet finds 
occasion to say, " pure ignorance is always better than 
falsity. The difficulties of geology have ever been 
produced by the Woodwards." In actual amount and 
measurement of critical castigation, none come off so 
easily as Whitehurst ; 

" The name of Whitehurst is enough." 

But I must have done with these amusing sweepings, 
though the Doctor descends as low as to some of my 
own time, in addition to De Luc, Kirwan, Dolomieu, 
Hutton, and Playfair; modern comparative anatomy 
is of a later date, and of course ail the theories con- 
nected therewith. I ought not, however, to take my 

the purpose to be passed by. " The Bible instructs us that man, and 
other living things, have been placed but a few years upon the earth ; 
and the physical monuments of the earth bear witness to the same truth. 
If the astronomer tells us of myriads of worlds not spoken of in the 
sacred records ; the geologist in like manner proves (not by arguments 
from analogy, but by the incontrovertible evidence of physical phe- 
nomena) that there were former conditions of our planet, separated 
from each other by vast intervals of time, during which man and the 
other creatures of his own date, had not been called into being. Periods 
such as these belong not therefore to the moral history of our race ; and 
come neither within the letter nor the spirit of revelation. Between 
the first creation of the earth, and that day in which it pleased God to 
place man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval ? On this question 
Scripture is silent ; but that silence destroys not the meaning of those 
physical monuments of his power that God has put before our eyes, 
giving us at the same time faculties whereby we may interpret them, 
and comprehend their meaning." 

If I deny not that there may have been " former conditions of our 
planet," I have all along insisted that such former " periods," if such 
there were, do not belong to the moral history of our race. It is only 
upon a feeling that such past periods and " intervals" cannot be 
strictly " defined," and yet that the attempt has been made, that I have 
been induced to question certain of the conclusions, and calculations of 
geologists. I feel bound to refer to a work manifestly intended to 
relieve the latter from all undue suspicions of being hostile to religion 
in their pursuits of natural science. 

L 5 



226 



THE HUMAN EPOCH. 



leave of Dr. Macculloch, without observing, that his 
xlvi. chapter, " On Theories of the Earth," from 
which the above extracts are taken, is replete with 
learning, though delivered in so close and condensed 
a style, as to require a good deal of attention. He is 
a great friend to the progress and promotion of science, 
and not indisposed to declaim against the " ignorance 
and intolerance" of what he calls " a false theology," 
blind to the discovery of the " new path" that had 
been opened to " the study of the wisdom and 
government" of the Deity. 

I have copied this remark, (though I cannot say I 
entirely comprehend its force), because as the Doctor 
has in another place so solemnly recorded his un- 
bounded reverence for the word of God, I should be 
very sorry to have it thought, that if geology be in- 
deed a " new path opened to the study of his wisdom 
and government" I would attempt to throw any ob- 
stacles in its way ; but as among the epochs of geo- 
logy itself, we find an acknowledged human epoch, I 
have endeavoured to show, that this must be so ex- 
clusively our epoch \ that as we have a most authentic 

1 I have not meddled with the extraordinary astronomical epoch of 
4004 b. c. largely discussed by Dr. Nolan in his second Lecture, because 
I do not quite know that the chronological coincidence is so established 
as to render the epoch itself, a matter of certainty, and also because I 
have had occasion in an early part of this work to refer to a different 
computation approved by Dr. Hales. But lam not entitled through 
any knowledge of my own to say, that Dr. Hales was right, and Dr. 
Nolan and those he cites wrong. My own account of Dr. Hales's rea- 
soning upon the subject may be seen in the Advertisement bearing my 
name, prefixed to the tenth edition of Tytler's Elements of General 
History, 1831. The coincidence spoken of by Dr. Nolan, is certainly 
very extraordinary, and strongly corroborative of the commonly received 
era of the creation. I pass over, for similar reasons, the learned Lec- 
turer's remarks on the ages, &c. of the Patriarchs, Lecture V. The com- 



TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 



227 



and uncontradicted history of all relating to it, of that, 
and that alone, we need not regard any speculations 
that carry us back beyond the human epoch, except 
as purely matters of science, curious as leading to the 
discovery of very extraordinary and perhaps indis- 
putable facts, but likely enough still to fail as to any 
adequate and perfect comprehension or explanation 
of all the circumstances connected with such facts. 
Much may be done, as Cuvier observed, by the 
<{ dash of a pen," which if every circumstance were 
perfectly known, the facts on which they seem to 
rely, would by no means justify or confirm. I have 
always been struck with the following passage, in the 
first chapter of my friend Dr. Kidd's Geological 
Essay, and I must say, though long known, it has 
as yet lost no particle of its original influence on my 
mind. I copy from an edition of 1815. 

" With respect to the question how far a theory of 
the earth is likely to affect our belief in Scripture, I 
would simply observe, that from the endless discordance 
in the opinions of philosophers on this point, from the 
manifest inadequacy of the data we are at present in 
possession of, and from the physical impossibilities 
which must for ever be a bar to more than a super- 
ficial knowledge of the earth's structure, it is prepos- 
terous to suppose that that high degree of moral evi- 
dence on which the credibility of Scripture rests, can 
with any justice be weakened by our interpretation of 
phenomena, the connection of which among them- 
selves even, we certainly are at present, and pro- 
bably ever shall be, incapable of explaining." 

putations of Josephus, and Theophihis of Antioch, the first Christian 
chronologer, referred to in the second part of this work, leading to dif- 
ferent conclusions. 

L 6 



228 



HEXAEMERON. 



This passage, however, I ought to add, is followed 
by a very judicious caution, against resting the credi- 
bility of Scripture too much on phenomena of so 
doubtful a character. 

I hope it will have been seen that through the 
whole of this small work I have endeavoured to place 
the credibility of Scripture on a less fallacious foot- 
ing ; on a foundation of much greater certainty ; not 
disdaining any support to be derived from science, or 
physical corroborations, but looking to the character 
of Moses, as a prophet, not a philosopher; and to the 
Book of Genesis as a book stamped with the autho- 
rity of our Saviour and the chief of his apostles, at 
the era of the new creation. I have left the door open 
(perhaps at the risk of some blame), for the lovers 
and promoters of science, to pursue their researches, 
and indulge their curiosity, to any extent they please, 
beyond what I conceive to be the proper beginning of 
our own history, as a subject of divine revelation; 
distrusting indeed, though not feeling it necessary to 
dispute many of their conclusions and calculations, 
as not belonging in their estimation to our state 
and condition of being, and therefore, even if quite 
correct, unconnected with us, I will not say as 
objects of curiosity, but certainly as objects of 
faith. 

I could lament, as I have before hinted, that the 
term geology had ever been applied to the Mosaical or 
Scriptural account of the creation, not thinking it ad- 
visable or quite discreet, (if I may say so without 
offence;) being likely in my own estimation to give 
some countenance to the mistake imputed to certain 
advocates of revelation, of representing it to be " the 
design of Scripture to teach philosophy ;" and, " mira- 



POWER OF GOD. 



229 



culousness being," as Mr. Sharon Turner has ob- 
served, " the true character of created nature." 

A belief in the Hexaemeron, as an historical record, 
is the result of no geological conviction, but of a 
strong confidence in the supernatural power of God, 
as to things past, just as much as a belief in the re- 
surrection of the dead, is a reliance on the same power 
as to things future; in strictness, physics can have 
nothing to do with either. Though I shall never 
think it wrong, or out of place, to look for, and claim 
support from, any conformities that may be traced, as 
in the instance of man's comparatively recent appear- 
ance, upon the earth, now known to be a geological as 
well as a theological fact. St. Paul's illustration of the 
resurrection of the body, I conceive to be an admirable 
and fair appeal to physics, as regards the power of 
God, though the process after all will be, probably, 
perfectly supernatural. 

I do not, therefore, like to read of the " rejection of 
the Mosaic record of creation," on physical or geolo- 
gical grounds, because, to plain and unphilosophical 
believers, it must appear to be a rejection or denial of 
the power of God, which I am sure was not meant by 
the eminent person, from whom the expression is de- 
rived. 

Very few I am persuaded when they think of, or 
repeat the fourth commandment, entertain in their 
minds, the most distant allusion to any geological 
facts or physical processes, but I am equally per- 
suaded that it would be difficult, under such circum- 
stances, to divert their minds from a deep considera- 
tion and feeling of the infinite power of that Being, 
to whom such stupendous events, as the six days' pro- 
ductions, are ascribed. 



•230 



DECLARATIONS OF GEOLOGISTS. 



We are apt, perhaps, in considering the Hexaemeron 
of Moses, to look at our own planet too much in de- 
tail. We should scarcely question the power of God 
to call into existence, in a moment, any of the heavenly 
bodies above, as they appear to our eyes ; though, for 
what we know, consisting of as many parts, and con- 
taining as great a variety of organised and unorgan- 
ised bodies as the planet on which we dwell. 

It has been shown, beyond denial, that on the con- 
tinent, some time past, geology had been found to 
disturb the faith of both Jews and Christians ; but it 
was shown, at the same time, and on the same autho- 
rity, that in England, the faith of Christians was not 
so easily to be shaken. That some attempts to that 
effect had absolutely failed ; and I earnestly hope the 
course of things may continue the same, since I am 
able, in conclusion of this little work, to bear testi- 
mony to two facts of high importance to all true be- 
lievers. 

First, that not only a great abundance of very 
learned and wise persons see reason still to adhere 
to the strict letter of divine revelation; but secondly, 
that the most eminent and respectable of those who 
avowedly give up the literal sense of certain import- 
ant passages, and have appeared, from the course and 
compass of their physical researches, from the un- 
bounded antiquity they assign to this earthly planet, 
and from expressions too little guarded, to give too 
much advantage to the infidel and unbeliever; do 
nevertheless, as far as my reading' goes, manifest a 
great desire to have it understood, that whatever sus- 
picions of a contrary tendency may have arisen in the 
minds of their less scientific brethren, their own faith 
in revelation, in the " Gospel of Christ," in " the 



MACCULLOCH. 



231 



truth as it is in Jesus," in " the mystery of godli- 
ness," remains as strong as ever, and may not, with 
any justice or propriety, be questioned or disputed. 

This being generally known and understood, it is 
to be hoped, no ill effects will ensue, from the prose- 
cution of their geological researches. But if by any 
circumstances, they should appear to come into serious 
or suspicious competition, with the great truths of 
revelation, then I would wish to have leave to remind 
my readers of the very solemn declaration of Dr. Mac- 
culloch noticed in a former part of this treatise, namelv, 
that " if geology should be found to contradict the re- 
vealed Word of God, he," as a believer in revelation 
as well as a geologist, " should be among the first to 
say, the science is in error," 



APPENDIX. 



Having omitted the opportunity of introducing the fol- 
lowing remarks into the body of my work, I subjoin them 
as an appendix. 

No. I. 

I feel almost persuaded that modern geological discoveries 
have had a tendency to impress the mind of man, with new, 
and perhaps therefore false ideas, of the sublime, as regards the 
works of God. I find it admitted, by a gentleman very averse 
from believing the literal accounts of the creation, in the Book 
of Genesis, that " it is a description of the original formation 
of the world couched in such magnificent imagery, as the 
glowing fervour of the most high-wrought imagination may 
in vain seek to emulate." This then surely is an ample ac- 
knowledgment of its sublimity — and in what consists its subli- 
mity ? surely in ascribing to the Deity, a power of commanding 
things into a perfect state of existence, with as little reference to 
secondary or physical causes as possible ; but what is the view 
taken by the same writer, of the actual course of things ? I 
have already copied the very words, " a long succession of 
periods or eras, throughout each of which the world had its 
perfect complement of life in abundant variety, continuing 
through different stages of indefinitely long duration, succes- 
sively developing new forms of vitality to supply the place of 
those that had become extinct : until at length, in the countless 
revolution of ages, the face of the globe, and the species inha- 
biting it, began to assume something like its existing appear- 
ance, and became a suitable habitation for man." I will take 
another account from no contemptible writer, certainly quite 
otherwise : — ' e The state of the globe becoming more and more 
consolidated, and permanently fitted for living beings of supe- 
rior organization, and those tremendous convulsions depending 
upon the destruction of the equilibrium between the heating 



234 



APPENDIX. 



and cooling agencies in action subsiding, the quietude of the 
earth presented a favourable opportunity for the creation of a 
higher species of mammiferee than hitherto produced, and ac- 
cordingly man was created 1 ." 

Supposing this to be all true, I cannot discover much subli- 
mity in it as regards the Deity, and any want of sublimity, must 
surely betoken a deficiency of adaptation or suitableness. Every 
body, without the assistance of Longinus, must, I think, be 
capable of duly appreciating the sublimity of that magnificent 
Hat, " let there be light, and there was light," which in the 
original, Longinus rather enlarges upon ; introducing a pause, 
to give time as it were for considering, how the works of God 
could be most appropriately set forth. The passage is remark- 
able — " Tavry Kai 6 ru>v lovSaaov OefffioOeTng, tituSr) rr\v tov Quov 
Awa/AW Kara rr\v a%iav ex<*>pt](Te, Ka%e<p7jv£V evQvg sv ry £ic/3oXy 
ypaipag tojv vofjiwv, i Ei7T£v 6 Qeog,' (prjci' Tl ; yevecrOoj (p(*)g y km 
eytvero' yeveaQw yrj, /cat eyeveTo." Here we find the earth as well 
as the light, included in the same instance of sublimity. Surely 
then, Longinus himself would have been startled, had he been 
in the way of hearing, that a much more sublime account could 
be given of the operations of the Deity ; that instead of com- 
manding the earth, as preparatory to the introduction of man, 
into existence at once, for his accommodation, and as quickly 
to bring forth all things " pleasant to the sight and good for 
food," that man's intended habitation so much exceeded the 
power of God to produce in an instant, that in reality he was 
obliged to wait for an opportunity, and could only proceed to 
the accomplishment of the object he manifestly had in view, 
" through different stages of indefinitely long duration," 
" countless revolutions of ages ?" and a previous trial of various 
" forms of vitality j" not one of which seemed fit to be con- 
tinued. 

I have said, " the object he manifestly had in view," be- 
cause I have lately read in Sir Charles Bell's much, and justly 

1 See the Letters on the discoveries of modern geologists in Fraser's 
Magazine. In making free with some of the geological parts of these 
letters, I should be sorry to be thought indifferent to the very curious 
and interesting information they contain on many subjects of natural 
history. 



APPENDIX. 



235 



admired Bridgewater Treatise, on the Mechanism of the Hand, 
the following passages : — " There is extreme grandeur in the 
thought of an anticipating and prospective intelligence ; in re- 
flecting that what was finally accomplished in man, was begun 
in times incalculably remote, and antecedent to the great revolu- 
tions which the earth's surface has undergone." " Nothing is 
more surprising to our measure of time, than the slowness with 
which the designs of Providence have been fulfilled. But as far 
as we can penetrate by the light of natural knowledge, the con- 
dition of the earth, and with it of man's destinies, have hitherto 
been accomplished in great epochs." 

I am quite ready to confess myself to be very dull and very 
ignorant upon such points ; but I must say, I do not under- 
stand, to what great epochs Sir Charles would, in the passage 
above, refer " man's destinies," seeing that, geologically speak- 
ing, man had nothing to do, with the epochs of extinct animals, 
such as the Iguanodon and other Saurian epochs — and the 
human epoch, would appear to be the last and the least — that is 
as to what is past; of the future extent and duration of the 
human epoch, geologically we appear to know nothing ; except 
that according to the Huttonian system, while we are living 
upon our present mouldering and decaying continents, others 
are preparing to receive such of our posterity as may be in 
the way, to shift themselves from the one to the other. 

In order to account for the progressive process, it would seem 
that after all, it is not to be placed to the account of the Deity, 
and may not, therefore, be considered as detracting any thing 
from the sublimity of his uncontrollable omnipotences it is 
owing entirely to the weakness of his delegated ministers, or 
minister ,• that is to nature, distinct from God. " Nature," we 
are told, " is not intelligence, nor the Deity, but a delegated 
power under laws of necessity. She is obliged to go on gra- 
dually ; she cannot produce animals and plants all at once, but 
must begin with the most simple, and out of them elabo- 
rate the most compound, adding to them successively different 
systems of organs, and multiplying more and more their num- 
bers and energy. She is always engaged in the formation of 
elementary rudiments of animal and vegetable existence, which 
is like the spontaneous generation of the ancients — day by day 
she begins anew the work of the creation, the monads, &c. or 



236 



APPENDIX. 



rough drafts, being the only living things she gives birth to 
directly." Now, if we knew nothing of man theologically, 
I think we could not without difficulty, be brought to care 
much about him geologically. Considering that all which 
nature may be supposed to have been doing for countless 
ages, is, to have been working her way up to such a state 
of things, as might bring man into the course of her ope- 
rations, as rather a superior species of mammiferce ; and not 
to stop at man, but possibly to go farther; in time, per- 
haps as far as angels ; I see not how this can be said to differ 
much from the development system of Lamark, though the 
passage above is referred to Mr. Lyell, the great and power- 
ful opponent of that system ; the following conclusion being 
drawn from it. After stating, that the last phenomenon of the 
organic creation is the appearance of man, the author proceeds, 
" And in this long course of changes we see clearly the wisdom 
and foresight of the Creator, in previously fitting the earth for 
his creatures before each successive species is called into life, 
whilst in the animal kingdom we see a progressive perfecti- 
bility going on regularly, from the period of the earliest era of 
the globe's formation, and from which it is not unreasonable to 
anticipate future improvements," that is, in fact, we happen to 
have fallen in, as tolerably respectable specimens, of a progres- 
sive perfectibility — that nature is progressive, and beautifully 
so, in some of her operations, as in the growth of plants and 
animals, and the annual variation of the seasons, is most true, 
but when geologists reckon and even multiply by ages, expressly 
to prevent the " undervaluing of past time," and to leave room 
for endless revolutions, it seems to bring them under the lash 
of their own great Apollo, Cuvier, who censures the " belief of 
a nature distinct from the Creator, and less powerful than he is, 
and which has no evident support, but in those fancied limits 
which they would place to his power." 

What I write, is not through any apprehension of danger 
from the principles of the authors of such theories (for theories 
they certainly are beyond a certain point), but that in the enun- 
ciation of what they believe to have been the course of nature, 
man appears to be introduced so strangely, as to be as much 
cut off from any communication with his Maker, and conse- 
quently left in as much ignorance, of his own destinies, as any 



APPENDIX. 



237 



other of the organic beings, that may have peopled the planet, 
I will not say from the beginning of time, but from some 
beginning so remote, as to be incapable of being ascertained. 
The men of science must forgive me if I had rather think of 
man, as he is made known to us in the Book of Genesis ; as 
not being kept waiting as it were, through innumerable ages, 
for such a state of things, as might afford the Maker of the 
universe, an "opportunity" of adding to the race of mammi- 
ferce, but as having all terrestrial objects expressly prepared for 
his reception ; then created in the image of God ; and made so 
acquainted with his own destinies, as to comprehend at once, 
that with regard to the things around him he was placed in a 
situation of commanding eminence, as a rational and moral 
being ; a free agent, but responsible to him who made him ; and 
the choice open to him of obedience or disobedience, good or 
evil, life or death. 

That great genius, but unhappy man, Lord Byron, we are 
told, once asked a friend, " If, according to some speculations, 
you could prove the world many thousand years older than the 
Mosaic chronology ; or if you could get rid of Adam and Eve, 
the apple, and serpent, still, what is to be put up in their stead? 
or how is the difficulty removed ? things must have had a be- 
ginning, and what matters it when or how?" 

In the Book of Genesis we have a beginning, including the 
when and the how; the "when" is confirmed — the " how" is 
as much a matter of history as the " when ;" and the apple and 
the serpent, stand proved and exemplified, by every divine law 
still binding upon the consciences, and written upon the hearts 
of the sons of Adam, and by every temptation to transgress 
which this wicked world supplies. 



No. II. 

In the foregoing treatise I have had much occasion to ob- 
serve, that while, upon our theological system, we have to look 
back upon a most marked and sublime beginning of things, 
upon the geological system we can arrive at no beginning at all ; 
that is, as to the body of the planet, for as to the appearances 
of vitality, we seem so far to discover a beginning, or begin- 



238 



APPENDIX. 



nings, that all organic fossils appear above the primitive rocks. 
But how or when they first came into the places where we find 
them, though very much has been said of eras and epochs, 
elevations and depressions, changes of climate, successive sub- 
mersions, diluvian action, transportation, &c. &c, I must con- 
fess I do not yet know that much has been conclusively settled, 
except indeed, that we must consent to take it upon trust, that 
ages past all computation, all power of figures to express, must 
have elapsed before man appeared upon the earth, and then 
that he only came because things seemed to be ready for him, 
and at all events in a great measure, to put up with the leavings 
of a parcel of ugly animals, who had been enjoying life, 
" through all forms of vitality," from a sponge to a mastodon, 
and under certain conditions of the planet, of which it seems 
impossible to form any very plausible conjecture, only that as 
all animals seem to require food, there must have been such 
tables spread for them all, as their several tastes, and appetites, 
the particular formation of their stomachs, and powers of diges- 
tion required — not however without due precaution, in pro- 
ducing the herbivorse before the carnivorae (for fear the latter 
should eat up all the former), insects before swallows and other 
birds, and plants before insects. 

If then, in the foregoing treatise I may have appeared, to a 
certain extent, more satisfied with such theories as point to 
some beginning, conformable to the history of our own species, 
than to the geological systems connected immediately with the 
organic remains found in our strata, explained and illustrated 
by comparative anatomists, it is not that I would attempt to 
dispute any of the facts that have been brought to light, much 
less the truly scientific talents of such explorers of the earth's 
contents, but that, granting it all to be true ; granting the dis- 
coveries made to be in the highest degree indicative of the 
power and wisdom of God ; it conveys no very pleasing senti- 
ments to my mind— as a moral, rational, and I hope I may add, 
religious being. The moment I become acquainted with the 
Author of the universe, I wish to find in him other attributes, 
than those of mere power and wisdom ; I wish to find in him 
attributes, more applicable to the feelings, wants, and expec- 
tations of moral, rational, and religious beings. I am almost 
frightened to read of such a mere succession of vital forms, 

12 



APPENDIX. 



239 



doomed only to make their graves in our stony strata, become 
extinct, and be no more seen, except in the forms of mutilated 
carcases and imperfect skeletons ; I am almost frightened to 
read of man, as only another vital form, brought upon the stage, 
to suit the shiftings of the scenes. I say it almost frightens me 
to read of these things, and if I had not my Bible nearly by heart, 
I know not that I could read about them, with any comfort or 
satisfaction. 

In the Book of Genesis, I find my God and my Creator, and 
the Ruler of the universe, just where I wish to find him: I read 
of him as of a Being of infinite power, and wisdom, and good- 
ness, exercising and displaying all those attributes in the crea- 
tion of man, and placing him upon the earth, not as a mere 
vital development, the almost accidental successor of a multi- 
tude of extinct animals in all the four divisions of that kingdom 
of nature, but as at once designed to be the lord of this lower 
world, and with faculties suited to that high station. Not 
ignorant of his Creator, but receiving from him a law, pur- 
posely to raise him to the condition of a moral and responsible 
being, so as by obedience to qualify himself to eat of the tree of 
life, and live for ever — I find him indeed choosing the unavoid- 
able alternative of disobedience, and falling from his high 
estate ; but I do not proceed far, before I read, not merely of 
the goodness, but of the redeeming mercy of his Creator, stretch- 
ing forth his hand to save him from the bitter consequences 
of his own misdoings, and by prophetic intimations, giving him 
assurances of a Mediator and Saviour to come ; and from this 
beginning of his earthly existence, enabling him to look to the 
very end of things, and encouraging him to hope, that he may 
yet become worthy to enter into the very presence of his 
Maker, in the heaven of heavens, there to enjoy a life ever- 
lasting, with all honour and glory, in a world without end. 



No. III. 

It will have been seen that some geologists, the Huttonians 
particularly, profess to have nothing to do with the " origin of 
things," and we may not therefore expect them to tell us any 
thing geologically concerning the end — indeed they do not seem 



240 



APPENDIX. 



to attempt it. — This world must appear to them like a serpent 
with his tail in his mouth; decaying, but yet renovating so 
methodically, that nobody shall be in the way of discovering 
any fixed or certain termination of things; " never ending, still 
beginning." Perhaps a more just picture of the Huttonian 
system of a succession of continents could not be found, than in 
the following enigma of Lactantius, actually entitled Vipera : — 

" Non possum nasci, sinon occidero matrem, 
Occidi matrem ; sed me manet exitus idem, 
Id mea mors faciet, quod jam mea fecit origo." 

Theologists on the contrary, profess to know something about 
the end as well as the beginning of things ; upon the authority 
of St. Paul particularly, in the very chapter I selected as the 
basis of my remarks upon man, as known to us theologically j 
his words are these : — 

" If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all 
men most miserable 

" But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the 
first-fruits of them that slept. 

" For since by man came death, by man came also the resur- 
rection from the dead. 

" For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
alive. 

" But every man in his own order : Christ the first-fruits, 
afterward they that are Christ's, at his coming. 

" Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up 
the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put 
down all rule and all authority and power. 

. " For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his 
feet. 

" The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 

Here then is no extinction for us ; and " these things were 
written for our learning ;" not in the way of science, but of 
revelation; "that we through patience and comfort of the 
Scriptures, might have hope." 

If I were asked when this end is really likely to come, I 
should not be so presumptuous as in any manner to attempt to 
say. I should only venture to observe that it is coming, and 



APPENDIX. 



241 



nobody can hinder it ; and that we had better be upon our 
watch, and that constantly ; for it may happen any day of our 
lives, and at any division of the day — " at even, or at midnight, 
or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning. " 

As I cannot pretend to say when it will come, so could I not 
venture to say how it will come, had we not been expressly told, 
that as one world has perished by water, so the heavens and 
the earth which are now, by the same word," (that word which 
ordained the destruction of a former world,) "are kept in 
store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and per- 
dition of ungodly men." And that moreover, " the day of the 
Lord will come as a thief in the night." 

Having this intimation given us in so circumstantial a man- 
ner, and having it in our power to read the history of volcanos, 
down to the present time, in Mr. Lyell's entertaining volumes, 
we can scarcely be at a loss to find materials for such an igneous 
termination of earthly things as the apostle speaks of. At pre- 
sent volcanos may indeed be conservative, and operate as 
safety-valves, but we know what it is to depend upon any 
security so precarious, whether physical or mechanical. And 
who can answer, in mundane affairs, for any obstruction or in- 
terference with such safety-valves, to answer other purposes ? 
that is, in short, for moral or religious ends ? How very easily 
it might all be brought about, may appear from the following 
rather alarming account of things. " The present existing 
crust of the earth is comparatively thin, and the surface of our 
globe surrounds a fluid nucleus of ignited matter, from which 
circumstances we appear to be by no means secure from a 
general catastrophe by fire." 

Pliny, long ago, wondered how we could live at ease on an 
earth so frail. ct The process of physical revolution," says 
another eminent geologist, " is slow, but certain j" as human 
creatures, it is our business to be upon our guard against 
changes that are uncertain, and may be, sudden I 

But I must be cautious ; for I have this instant fallen upon 
the following passage in my readings. " If men who know 
nothing of physics, will pretend to interpret the Bible in mat- 
ters which imply physical action, they will, of course, write 
nonsense." I may, however, I think, proceed a few steps fur- 
ther, and copy the very passage that follows the one I have 

M 



242 



APPENDIX. 



just introduced, as it appears to come from an adept in physical 
knowledge : — " It is plain, from the recent elaborate researches 
in geology, that this planet has undergone successive changes, 
and that another may ensue, which a great improvement in the 
nature of man, and state of the earth, may be expected to 
accompany. Such is the opinion of well-informed commen- 
tators on Cuvier j and it is to be added, that there is nothing 
whatever of which permanency can be predicated, except of the 
Divine Being. We are ignorant of the interior of this globe, 
and of the laws by which its subterraneous action is regulated. 
Of course, we cannot fix any date, or anticipate the phenomena, 
which will induce the change alluded to; as to the thousand 
years, it is plainly a mere phrase for a long period K We 
have made these remarks, to show that there is nothing unphi- 
losophical in the matter so far as concerns the Bible, however 
foolish may be the interpretations of its meaning. We say, 
* of the times and seasons hnoweth no man.' " 

Now this is admirably written, being principally directed, I 
ought to add, against the too eager propensity of certain per- 
sons, living as well as dead, to Jix the exact date for the com- 
mencement of the Millennium. That this planet has undergone 
" successive changes," is a geological decision ; affording how- 
ever ground, as it would seem, for another change to come, 
consistently with the prophecy of " new heavens and a new 
earth," and with such improvements in the nature of man, and 
condition of the earth, as to render the other portion of the 
prediction probable, that in the new earth, perfect " righteous- 
ness," may dwell. As to fixing the exact date of the com- 
mencement of the Millennium, (if the prophecies supposed to in- 
dicate such a period have not been mistaken,) men might, one 
would think, regard it as some check to their speculations, to be 
reminded, that we have already passed dates that had been fixed 
upon, and no Millennium has yet even begun ; nor are there 
such prospects of its beginning as should be taken into the 
account — not merely an increase of righteousness, but the con- 
version of Jews and Gentiles, and such a fall of Antichrist as 
cannot be mistaken — it has been supposed actually to have began 

1 Bishop Gray in his Sermon on the Millennium thinks it may have 
been so, p. 322. 



APPENDIX. 



243 



with, or in the reign of Constantine ; (but this I think will be 
easily given up). Of other dates that are passed, we may men- 
tion 1530, 1716, and 1793 — those to come begin with 1866, 
and end with 2036 — which is, I believe, Sir Isaac Newton's 
computation. Lactantius, who had probably read as much as 
could be read upon the subject in those days, not omitting the 
Sibylline Oracles, considered it to be very generally admitted, 
that it would take place in about two hundred years after the 
time of his writing ; since which, however, there have passed 
more than fifteen complete centuries. 

That the prophecies supposed to intimate what is commonly 
"called the Millennium, will be punctually fulfilled, I do not enter- 
tain the smallest doubt ; but I do entertain great doubts of such 
prophecies having as yet been duly interpreted ; of one thing, 
however, we may be quite certain, that by what revolution 
soever the change contemplated may be brought to pass, the 
new earth is to be one, " wherein dwelleth righteousness," 
and for which therefore unrighteousness must be a perfect dis- 
qualification. " Seeing then," as the apostle has been care- 
ful to add, " that all present things shall be dissolved, what 
manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and 
godliness." 

Since writing the above (for I conclude all authors continue 
reading, though much of their manuscripts may be actually 
passing through the press), I have read in the " British Maga- 
zine," for the last month, February, 1834, two original letters 
of Bishop Horsley, in the first of which he speaks of the 
Millennium, so exactly as I have written above, that I cannot 
refrain from copying his words. " As to the Millennium, it is 
one of those mysterious points, which time, the only infallible 
interpreter of prophecy, must explain." In another part of his 
letter, the Bishop asks, " But how can the two Testaments be 
two witnesses ?" Having in pp. 17, 18, of this very work, called 
them so, I cannot omit to observe, though in great deference 
to so truly eminent a critic, that I must still think they may be 
called so, though I rather adopted the expression at ran- 
dom, without at all meaning to decide a controverted point in 
divinity ; surely we read of two covenants, two dispensations, 
two creations, two Adams, types and antitypes, prophecies and 
their fulfilment; and other distinctions of a like character, 

M 2 



244 



APPENDIX. 



which, though indeed the Bishop was right in regarding the 
whole as the testimony of one Holy Spirit, might serve to 
render plausible the supposition of those commentators, who 
have judged the two witnesses to be the Old and New Tes- 
taments. 



No. IV. 

Geologists and comparative anatomists, have had so much to 
do with the animal kingdom (to speak as a natural philosopher, 
though without any great pretensions to be considered as such), 
that I hope it may not be thought impertinent to offer a few 
remarks upon man, considered merely as an animal. 

There is not a classical school-boy possibly, in the whole 
compass of his Majesty's dominions, who does not know, that 
the very frame and fashion of man's body, has been held to dis- 
tinguish him very greatly from the rest of the animal creation, 
and to distinguish him, not merely in regard to certain differ- 
ences of conformation, but as a being of an higher order ; of 
higher pretensions ; in short, as fitted, even by his upright 
frame, to hold communication with his Maker, and aspire to 
things above. I have already cited Ovid, as having supplied 
us with an admirable picture of chaos, if such a condition of 
things ever actually existed. And in the second Fable of his 
Metamorphoses, he has spoken of the creation of man in a very 
extraordinary manner, concluding with what must be regarded 
as matter of fact, namely, his erect form. 

After giving a very curious account of the several " forms of 
vitality/' adapted to different regions of the universe, begin- 
ning even with the heavens, stars, and constellations, and de- 
scending to the earth, air, waters, &c, as may be seen in the 
following lines; 

" Neu regio foret ulla suis aniraalibus orba, 
Astra tenent cceleste solum, formaeque Deorum ; 
Cesserunt nitidis habitandae piscibus undae ; 
Terra feras cepit, volucres agitabilis aer." 

He introduces man, not merely as the apex of an ascending 
development, but as a being, wanting as it were, to the rest of 
the creation ; the lines are certainly remarkable. 



APPENDIX. 



245 



" Sanctius his animal, me?itisque capacius altce, 
Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in ccetera posset : 

Natus homo est. 

Pronaque cum spectent animalia csetera terram, 
Os homini sublime dedit, eoelumque tueri 
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus !" 

Which last lines 'have been so admirably and almost literally, 
rendered into English, by Dryden, that I cannot refrain from 
copying them. 

" Thus while the mute creation, downward bend 
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, 
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes, 
Beholds his own hereditary skies !" 

Of which passage in the original, nobody has made more, 
than that very eloquent, though oftentimes fanciful, Father 
of the Church, Lactantius, contending that the erect frame of 
man is so palpable a proof of his being designed to look upward, 
and aspire to heavenly joys, that whatever tends to fix his 
thoughts and attention on merely terrestrial objects, is contrary 
to his nature as a rational being. Contrary indeed, he adds, 
to the very name he bears, as the avQpojirog of the Greeks l , 
according to the opinions and reasonings of Socrates, Plato and 
Philo ; his expressions, and exhortations upon this point 
are exceedingly good. I cannot refrain from making a few 
extracts. 

w Hinc utique avQpu-Tcov Graeci appellarunt, quod sursum 
spectet. Ipsi ergo sibi renuntiant seque hominum nomine 
abdicant, qui non sursum aspiciunt sed deorsum. Nisi forte 
id ipsum, quod recti sumus, sine causa homini attributum 
putant. Spectare nos coelum Deus voluit, utique non frustra. 
Nam et aves, et ex mutis pene omnia ccelum vident, sed nobis 
proprie datum est, coelum rigidis ac stantibus intueri ; ut 
religionem ibi quaeramus : ut Deum, cujus sedes ilia est, quern 
oculis non possumus, animo contemplemur, quod profecto non 
facit, qui a?s, aut lapidem, quae sunt terrena, veneratur," which 
last words, alluding to the objects of heathen worship, are 

1 Tlapa to aw aSptiv, a sursum aspiciendo. 
M 3 



246 



APPENDIX. 



meant to express a sentiment which he had introduced before 
in the following very striking terms. " Qui curvant coelcste 
animal ad veneranda terrena." 

I may observe, that in the notes to the variorum edition, 
great credit is given to the Greeks, for having assigned to man, 
so much more proper a name, a name betokening a heavenly 
origin, than was the case with the Hebrews, [Adam, tD"7fc$] and 
the Latins [Homo] (followed by the Italians, French, Spaniards, 
&c.) both terms having evidently a greater relation to the 
earth 1 j and therefore, derogating in no small degree from the 
character he was designed to sustain, and the prospects to 
which he was encouraged to aspire. 

Lactantius gives a reason why man was created the last of 
all living beings. " Sanctae litera? docent, hominem fuisse 
ultimum Dei opus ; et sic inductum fuisse in hunc mundum, 
quasi in domumjam paratam, et instructam, Illius enim causa 
facta sunt omnia." And he again refers to Ovid; " Sanctius 
his animal, &c, Deerat adhuc," &c. ; as though, without 
such an inhabitant as man, the visible creation would be 
perfectly inexplicable ; and if, at this moment, man and all his 
works could be conceived to be withdrawn from the earth, it 
would exhibit a most extraordinary appearance. There are 
indeed at this time races of animals around us so useful, so 
domesticated, so interesting, that if suddenly left to themselves, 
the scene would be far less terrible to behold, than a world of 
such strange creatures, as have been lately discovered in our 
strata j but still without man, as it seems to me, the condition 
of things would be most strange ; so strange indeed, that I 
can scarcely bring myself to believe appearances have been 
even yet rightly interpreted : though I am backward to with- 
hold any praise strictly due to men of science ; but we cannot 
know all things. In every page of the second book of the 
Divine Institutions of Lactantius, I find passages, so replete 
with good sense, and Christian humility, that I wish every 
body could read them. The following I shall venture to 
transcribe : — 

" Opera Dei videntur oculis — quomodo autem ilia fecerit, ne 

1 Scaliger seems to have entertained a strange conceit, that Homo 
was the Greek ofxov simul, signifying that man was a sociable creature. 



APPENDIX. 



247 



mente quidem videtur. Sciat igitur quam inepte faciat, qui 
res inenarrabiles quaerit. Hoc est enim modum conditionis suae 
transgredi ; nec intelligere, quousque homini liceat accedere. 
Denique cum aperiret homini veritatem Deus, ea sola scire 
nos vomit, quae interfuit hominem scire ad vitam consequendam ; 
quae vero ad curiosam et profanam cupiditatem pertinebant, 
reticuit, ut arcana essent. Quid ergo quaeris, quae nec potes 
scire, nec si scias, beatior fias ?" 

I must, however, observe, that as far as geology is connected 
with the practical knowledge of the mineral substances of the 
earth, applicable to the uses, comforts, and conveniences of 
man, or to the advancement of national prosperity, so far from 
being proscribed in the above passage, I consider it to be parti- 
cularly approved : it is speculative geology only that requires to 
be kept within bounds. 

I cannot dismiss this number without taking some notice of 
the very last pages of Sir Charles Bell's Bridgewater treatise, 
of " Expression in the Eye," and in which he is at the pains 
of showing, that the relations between the mind and body, and 
external nature, are so fixed and constant that, " it seems 
merely natural that, when pious thoughts prevail, man's coun- 
tenance should be turned from things earthly to the purer 
objects above. There is a link in this relation every way worthy 
of attention, and the eye is raised, whether the canopy over us 
be shrouded in darkness, or display all the splendour of noon. 
The muscles which move the eye-ball are powerfully affected 
in certain conditions of the mind : independently altogether of 
the will, the eyes are rolled upwards during mental agony, and 
whilst strong emotions of reverence and piety are felt. This is 
a natural sign stamped upon the human countenance, and is 
as peculiar to man, as any thing which distinguishes him from 
the brute. The posture of the body follows necessarily, and 
forms one of those many traits of expression which hold man- 
kind in sympathy," with more to the same effect. No wonder 
that man has sometimes been defined to be animal religiosum, 
when the very muscles that move the eye-ball, are calculated 
to draw his attention to " things above," rather than to 
" things on the earth." 

More perhaps might have been said of " Expression in the 
Eye," as " holding mankind in sympathy," for there can be 



248 



APPENDIX. 



no doubt, that it is an organ as much fitted to convey as to 
receive impressions. When our " Lord turned," and merely 
iS looked upon Peter," at the awful moment of his third denial, 
he " went out" we read, " and wept bitterly." Lukexxii. 61, 62. 
But I apprehend more familiar instances might be discovered, 
by those who should be disposed to look out for them. 

The reference above prevents my turning to the poets, but 
Lactantius, whom I have so often cited, certainly regarded the 
eye as an active rather than a passive organ ; as the window at 
least, through which the mind or soul not only contemplates 
the things around, but makes herself known. " Verius et mani- 
festos est mentem esse quae per oculos ea quae sunt opposita 
transpiciat quasi per fenestras lucente vitro obductas, et idcirco 
mens et voluntas ex oculis saepe dignoscitur." Cicero, as is 
well known, speaks of the eyes as the " animi indices," and 
various other writers, ancient and modern, might be cited to 
the same effect. 

It seems to me, and I cannot bring myself to conceal it from 
the public, while so much is daily to be heard about the march 
of intellect, that fourteen or fifteen centuries back, it had un- 
doubtedly, with much fewer advantages, marched so far as to 
furnish perfectly good matter for a Bridgewater treatise, on the 
very subject proposed, viz. " The power, wisdom, and goodness 
of God, as manifested in the Creation." I am certain I should 
surprise any well-educated reader, if I were to copy a few pas- 
sages from two treatises only of that age ; I mean Lactantius de 
opificio Dei, and Theodoretus 7repi ILpovoiag. I am not sure but 
I could claim credit for the former, as a good comparative ana- 
tomist. Cuvier himself, for instance, could not have written 
more sensibly, and perhaps scarcely more correctly, of the class 
vertebratce of the animal kingdom, than Lactantius has done, 
pointing out the correspondence between the fore feet of qua- 
drupeds, the wings of birds, &c. and dwelling largely on the 
peculiar mechanism and uses of the human hand; and this in 
detail ; of the thumb, fingers, &c. even to the nails, all designed 
to distinguish man, as an operative, applicable to the superior 
faculties with which he is endowed ; " ubi autem Ratio, manus 
est ;" " Quid dicam de manibus rationis ac sapientise ministris 1 ?" 

1 The following passage ought certainly to be transcribed, as a sum- 



APPENDIX. 



249 



He discusses at length, in opposition to the Epicureans, the 
superiority of man as compared with the inferior animals, 
showing how reason in the former is calculated to supply the 
place of all the natural advantages of the latter. f ' Ita fit, ut 
plus homini conferat ratio, quam natura mutis," which is not 
merely said but proved ; as the " ita Jit " implies. Theodoretus 
is not less particular than Lactantius, in speaking of the extra- 
ordinary structure and uses of the human hand, and in abun- 
dance of very curious instances, brings forward such strong 
proofs of the providence, power, wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator, from the formation of the universe to the incarnation 
of the Son of God for the redemption of fallen man, as to be 
highly deserving the attention of all persons desirous of know- 
ing how much more we owe to the diligence, attention, learn- 
ing and eloquence of ancient writers than modern wisdom would 
seem to allow. I could almost wonder that Lord Bridgewater, 
who was apparently a man well acquainted with the authors of 
antiquity, did not at once direct the discoveries of modern 
science to be engrafted, as it were, on such treatises of former 
ages, as those to which I have alluded ; for there are many more 
of a similar description still extant, though several have fallen 
a sacrifice, as might be expected, to the ravages of time. 



No. V. 

Having had occasion in the first section of the foregoing 
work, to treat rather largely of the manhood of Jesus Christ, as 
an assumed manhood, and by no means implying that he was 
no more than man, but indeed the contrary, though Dr. 

mary of the views he has taken of vertebrated animals. " Ex ipso 
autem vasculo corporis quatuor fecit extantia, bina posterius ; quae sunt 
in omnibus pedes ; item bina capiti et collo proxima ; quae varios ani- 
mantibus usus praebent. In pecudibus enim ac feris sunt pedes posteri- 
oribus similes ; in homine autem manus ; quae non ad ambulandum, sed 
ad faciendum, operandumque sunt natae. Est et tertium genus, in quo 
priora ilia neque pedes neque manus sunt ; sed alae, in quibus pennae 
per ordinem fixae volandi exhibent usum : ita una fictio diversas species, 
et usus habet." 



250 



APPENDIX. 



Priestley in his " Corruptions of Christianity," would have us 
believe, that " our Lord's mere humanity is the clear doctrine 
of the Scriptures, and that the apostles never taught any other;" 
I think it not amiss to observe, how remarkable a circumstance 
it is, that the celebrated confession of Peter, that he knew 
Jesus to be " the Christ, the Son of the living God," Matt. 
xvi. 16., should have originated in an inquiry on the part of 
our Saviour, in which he had particularly called himself, the 
" Son of Man." The whole passage is very striking. " When 
Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his 
disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man 
am ? And they said, some say, John the Baptist ; some Elias ; 
and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets," plainly showing 
that they looked to the manhood only, as the subject of general 
opinion; and which furnished therefore, no complete answer ; 
for, " he saith unto them," the Scripture proceeds to tell us, 
" But whom say ye that I am ?" This more home question, 
so to speak, immediately drew from Peter a full acknowledg- 
ment of his divinity. " And Simon Peter answered, and said, 
Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus 
answered, and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona ; 
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
father which is in heaven." Peter does in no manner deny 
the manhood, but peremptorily asserts the Godhead ; he affirms, 
in short, three things of Jesus ; that he was the Christ ; that 
he was the son of man ; and that he was the son of the living 
God. It is to be noted that the appellation of Son of Man, is 
applied to Christ by himself, but by no other person throughout 
the four Gospels : it occurs seventeen times in Matthew, 
twenty in Mark, twenty-one in Luke, and eleven times in 
John, and always with this restriction. — See Foley's Evi- 
dences. 

That our Saviour by calling himself " the Son of Man," 
never meant to deny his heavenly Sonship is evident from the 
account we have in Matthew of his betrayal by Judas. When the 
false disciple had given the sign he had pledged himself to give, 
Jesus said unto him, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a 
kiss?" But when, upon his surrendering himself up, his other dis- 
ciples would have rescued him from the power of his enemies, 
he checked them, by reminding them of his higher character ; 



♦ 



APPENDIX. 251 

" Thinkest thou, that I cannot pray to my Father, and he shall 
presently give me more than twelve legions of Angels ?" and 
again, when carried before the high priest, and adjured to tell 
him whether he were the Christ the Son of the blessed God, he 
refers them to a proof, that may be said to have included both 
Sonships, and to have been so understood. " And Jesus saith, 
nevertheless/' (that is, notwithstanding the despised and lowly 
form in which I now appear at this tribunal,) " hereafter shall 
ye see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of 
God, and coming in the clouds of heaven ;" which was con- 
sidered to be so explicit and clear a declaration that he claimed 
to be the proper Son of God, that they at once pronounced it to 
be a blasphemous assumption of divinity, and a pretence for all 
that was to follow — in fact, our Lord knew, that as the Son of 
Man, he was that Son of Man, exclusively, that was revealed 
to the Prophet Daniel in his " night visions, as coming in the 
clouds of heaven, and to whom was assigned an everlasting 
dominion, which should not pass away ; a kingdom that should 
never be destroyed." Dan. vii. 13, 14. 

I can understand why the incarnation of the Son of God 
should appear a mystery to many minds, because in fact it has 
never yet been made known to us otherwise than as a mystery ; 
a " great mystery," 1 Tim. iii. 16. But I am at a loss to con- 
ceive how it can be supposed that the two characters ascribed 
to our Lord in the holy Scriptures, could possibly be given to 
any being possessed of a simple nature K 



No. VI. 

That no wrong impressions may be left upon the minds of 
the readers of this small volume, I must, in conclusion, request 
it to be understood, and recollected with some indulgence, that 
it was written by an author, born some years before the Baron 
Cuvier 2 , and of course many years, before his very curious 

1 See this admirably discussed in the Sermons of President Dwight, 
of Yale College, in Connecticut. Sermon xlii. 

2 It would seem as if the author had been partly kept alive by his 
own personal insignificance, since besides Cuvier, who was his junior, 



252 



APPENDIX. 



and extraordinary researches, had produced that excitement 
and enthusiasm amongst naturalists, which ever since his 
labours became known to the world, have been at work, are 
now at work, and are likely to continue so, as long as ever 
new discoveries may be made in the mineral kingdom, parti- 
cularly in such parts as shall be found to contain organic re- 
mains, whether animal or vegetable. 

It should also be remembered that the author is old enough 
to have been in communication with naturalists of great name 
in their day, whose opinions upon some points were confessedly 
approved, and fully adopted by Cuvier himself; points of great 
importance in regard to the credibility of the Mosaic history. 
I very naturally regarded Cuvier, for instance, as a host in sup- 
port of some of the principal conclusions of his predecessors 
De Luc and Dohmieu, particularly with respect to the low anti- 
quity of our present continents ; the sinking of former continents 
at the time of the deluge, and the course of things since. I also 
considered him to be a firm believer in the Genesis of Moses, and 
I am extremely happy to make out from Mrs. Lee's most inter- 
esting Memoirs of Cuvier, just published, that in all likelihood 
his opinions remained the same to the hour of his death. She has 
been careful to introduce into that work, the following passage 
cited in a former part of my book. — " I think with MM. De 
Luc and Bolomieu, that if there be anything positive in geology, 
it is, that the surface of our globe has been the victim of a great 
and sudden revolution, the date of which cannot be carried back 
further than from five to six thousand years ; that this re- 
volution has buried and caused the disappearance of countries 
formerly inhabited by man, and animals which are now 
known ; and on the other hand, has exposed the bottom of 
the water, and has formed from that, the countries now in- 
habited." 

I shall now copy what is said of his belief in Moses ; pre- 
mising only that having in a former part of this work observed 
that Moses was compelled to write of, or introduce, emblems at 
the very beginning of the Book of Genesis, he ^oon laid them 
aside for plain history. 

there were born, it appears, in the same year as Cuvier, Napoleon 
Buonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, Mr. Canning, M. de Chateaubriand, 
Sir Walter Scott, and Sir James Mackintosh. 



APPENDIX. 253 

" The second lecture gave a sketch of the four great nations 
constituted at the remotest period before Christianity, and of 
which history gives us any certain information. The extent of 
their knowledge was measured; the influence of that knowledge 
appreciated ; and in speaking of Moses, M. Cuvier said, that 
although Moses was brought up in all the learning of the 
Egyptians, he foresaw the inconveniences of, and laboured 
much to abolish their practice of veiling the truth under mys- 
terious emblems. That Moses was in possession of that truth, 
was evident from his system of cosmogony, which every dis- 
covery of recent times serves but to confirm." — [Memoirs of 
Cuvier.] 

I am sorry to look upon the present state of things, fancying 
I see the approaches of something like a contest between reve- 
lation and science ; which every prudent person would wish to 
prevent, and which in my own mind, I think, might be pre- 
vented, without any hazardous concessions. 

I have observed in the course of my reading, that our most 
respectable geologists in the midst of their enthusiasm, (for 
enthusiasm there certainly is) profess to entertain an unshaken 
veneration for the sacred writings, provided, that is, and this 
proviso gives offence to some, that they be considered as exclu- 
sively the vehicle for instilling Divine truths into the minds of 
men, and to have nothing to do with the " laws and structure 
of the material universe." The origin of the earth and man, 
they- say, so far from having been co-incident, as the Book of 
Genesis would seem to intimate, was in reality so totally dis- 
tinct, as to have no assignable connection whatever. Man, they 
allow, appears to be of recent origin, but the earth itself of a 
perfectly incalculable age, though for a very great length of 
time, stored with vegetables and animals ; the latter of orders 
and classes inferior to man, and some, of species entirely extinct 
long before man appeared. 

It has struck me, that if this theory be altogether correct, 
we, as human creatures, can have nothing to do with such a state 
of things. Sujh vegetables might as well have grown, and such 
animals have existed in quite another world — a world therefore 
which we may very harmlessly give up to the cultivators of 
physical sciences, as they themselves seem to propose. I do 
not however see that we are bound to give up a letter of the 



N 



254 



APPENDIX. 



Mosaical history, which evidently, to use a term of their own, 
is the commencement of a new epoch. Taking our beginning 
from thence, we are surely at liberty to conclude it to be no 
history of purely physical operations, but quite different; in 
fact a revelation of the manner in which our species was intro- 
duced into this planetary orb, communicated through the in- 
strumentality, not of a geologist, but a prophet of God. We 
are not called upon to account for it ; we are not expected to 
receive it as a discovery of science, but an object of faith. And 
as to any physical difficulties, what can they have to do with a 
question of creation, which as far as regards man it undoubt- 
edly is. 

The main question then, between geologists, and the believers 
(the full believers) in the Genesis of Moses, appears to be this, 
whether the latter may be held positively and authoritatively to 
preclude all belief in such a previous state of the planet, as the 
newly discovered organic fossils are judged to intimate. And 
I must confess, I have never felt under any necessity of be- 
lieving that it does do so. I have shown in a former part of this 
work, that as long ago as in 1805, when I preached myBampton 
Lecture, and still earlier, when, in 1801, I printed my book 
entitled EIS 9E0S EIS ME2TTHS, I fully determined it to be 
my opinion, that we had nothing to do with any previous con- 
dition of this planet ; nor do I recollect that this opinion was 
ever objected to by any author, reviewers, or private friends ; 
all we could require to know was, when it pleased God to pre- 
pare it for our use, and put us in possession of it ; and of this 
I have always thought we have been amply informed, and there, 
as a believer, or a theologian, I am willing to take my leave of the 
geologists ; not so however as a lover of science. Let them 
still explore the earth as much as they please ; let them discuss 
facts; let them draw their own conclusions from these facts ; I 
shall still feel myself at liberty to think that they have in no 
manner as yet 1 improved upon the Genesis of Moses. That in 

1 I have said " as yet," because Cuvier, like Newton, has left a 
' legacy of research," and I feel persuaded, that whatever of reality 
may come to be discovered, would be found to redound to the 
glory of God, if explanation could be brought to keep pace with 
discovery. 



APPENDIX. 



255 



describing the beginning of things, the latter is quite sublime in 
comparison with the " long periods," the * f great epochs," the 
various " forms of vitality," which were to be passed over, 
tried, exhibited, and dismissed, before man could be brought 
upon the stage. I think it much more consistent with the 
several attributes of the Deity, to represent him, as Moses has 
done, as a God not merely of power and wisdom, displayed in 
the creation of insensible vegetables, and irrational creatures, to 
occupy the globe for ages and ages, but as a God of goodness, 
beneficence, and love, for the creatures of his hands ; as be- 
stowing upon some of them, at the least, not merely a set of 
instincts suitable to their condition upon this earth, but faculties 
and endowments, of a much higher nature ; reason, intellect, 
free-will, a capacity of knowledge and perpetual improvement, 
with an imagination continually prompting them to aspire to 
higher things, and to give them a relish for the prospects of 
everlasting happiness, held out to them in the Book of Life. 
These are the considerations which have induced me some- 
times to speak of modern discoveries more slightingly, than as 
very curious objects of science, I should perhaps have otherwise 
done. For I cannot too often repeat that I am far from being 
an enemy to science. But knowing as I do, that the immense 
antiquity attributed to the earth by modern geologists, has, 
through a few unguarded expressions of their own, and an 
incapability of sufficiently explaining their new discoveries, 
disturbed the minds of some, offended the feelings of others, 
and led to publications in which revelation and science appear 
to be brought into collision, with no small interruption of 
that harmony which ought for ever to subsist between the 
lovers and promoters of both learning and science, I have 
endeavoured to bring matters to such a point, as may secure 
to revelation all its proper supports, without opposing any 
pursuits of science, or calling into question any well estab- 
lished facts. 



THE END. 



Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's-square, London. 



ERRATA. 



Page 25, line 1, for expiated, read expected. 

— 64, — 5, for Humphery, read Humphry. 

— 91, — 22, for notice it all, read notice it at all. 

— 173, — 14, for this species, read his species. 

— 175, — 18, for connation, read connection. 

— 183, note, line 4, for infusoria, read infusoriae. 



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